Prichard Colón Died on August 13, 2026. He Was 33. For Eleven Years After a Fight in Fairfax, He Did Not Come Back.

His father, Richard, posted the news on Facebook. Good morning. He regretted to say his son had left this world. Now a better one. Thank you for the years of love and prayer. Keep praying for the family. He had tried to grant a wish that never happened: vacation in Puerto Rico.

That is the announcement. The rest is a career that stopped on October 17, 2015, and a body that did not.

The fighter

Prichard Colón Meléndez. Born September 19, 1992, Maitland, Florida. Puerto Rican. Nickname Digget. Orthodox. Super welterweight. Six feet, 74-inch reach. Gold at the 2010 Pan American Youth Championship at 64 kilograms. Professional debut 2013. 16–0 with 13 knockouts when he walked into the EagleBank Arena against Terrel Williams. People who watch prospects for a living called him a problem. The World Boxing Council later made him an honorary world champion — a title that is love, not a belt he got to defend.

The ninth round and after

Williams, Fairfax, Virginia. Colón and his corner complained through the fight about punches to the back of the head — rabbit punches, illegal if the referee sees them that way. A point came off Williams. Colón told the ringside doctor he was dizzy. He went down twice in the ninth. His corner pulled the gloves after that round and he was disqualified. Then the dressing room: vomiting, collapse. Subdural hematoma. Emergency surgery at Inova Fairfax. 221 days in a coma. After that, a persistent vegetative state. No speech. Years of physiotherapy. His mother and the rest of the family as the care team. A lawsuit against the ringside physician and promoters that, as of the last public notes, had not gone to trial.

Williams, in a 2017 interview, declined blame. That sentence can sit next to the medical file without anyone winning it here.

Eleven years

He did not walk. He did not talk. He did not get the island trip. He received work and prayer and the kind of attention that fades after the first anniversary posts. August 13, 2026, in Orlando, the long fight ended. No detailed public cause beyond the injury that never released him. Glen Haven Memorial Park in Winter Park is listed as the rest.

The WBO called him a warrior to the end. DAZN asked for rest in peace. Those are the correct short sentences.

What not to do with this

Do not turn rabbit punches into a tutorial. Do not turn a DQ into a morality play about who “really won.” Do not use a vegetative decade as content seasoning. Colón was 23 when the lights in that dressing room went wrong. He was 33 when his father had to write the post. In between there was only care.

16–0, then one official loss that was not the loss that mattered. The loss that mattered was the hematoma and the eleven years. Boxing will have another card this weekend. His family will not. Descansa en paz.