Welterweight prospect Ed Brown gunned down in Chicago

At age 25, welterweight prospect Ed Brown (20-0, 16 KOs) saw his life come to an abrupt and violent end after he was shot in the head over the weekend, reports ESPN. Brown was reportedly sitting in a parked car with his cousin around 1AM in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood when another car pulled up alongside and fired multiple shots into the vehicle. Brown was struck multiple times while his cousin, 19, was hit in leg.

"He lost his life at 25 years old for nothing." Dunkin said. "Those people in Chicago shoot you for no reason. It'd be different if he was out there gang banging or running around or dealing drugs. He wasn't doing any of those things. He was such a quiet kid. He was so bashful. You'd never know how tough he was in the ring talking to him outside the ring."

Brown tuned professional in late 2012 after a successful amateur career and signed with influential manager Cameron Dunkin last year when he fought 13 times. Dunkin says that Brown was excited about being on the cusp of breaking into the big time before his life was dramatically cut short.

"He was so excited about being 20-0 and so excited about being so close to breaking through. He was excited about what he was going to do. He believed and I believed he was going to be a world champion. It's just such a shame, just such a waste of a life."

Dunkin also mentions that he strongly urged Brown to move away from Chicago and offered to help relocate him to Las Vegas, but that Brown just couldn’t bring himself to leave the city where he was raised.

"I told him he had to get out of Chicago. I begged him to get out of Chicago," Dunkin said. "And every time I had him ready to go, (trainer) George (Hernandez) would call me and say he's not going to leave. It's sad they can't leave that environment."

Chicago has a well-earned reputation as being one of the most violent places in the country over the last several years — particularly as it relates to gangs and gun violence — and the local authorities have had little-to-no success regaining control.