An 11-year-old Muay Thai boxing champion is on life support after being hit by a car in an unincorporated area near El Cajon Saturday, with his loved ones asking for prayers and support as they hope for a miraculous recovery.
Kevin Ouda was training Saturday morning, out on a run with some of his older teammates, according to his coach James Gregory, who owns Pure Heart Muay Thai.
They were returning to the gym, just about a block away on First Street, when a dog jumped toward them, Gregory said. Kevin jumped back and was hit by a car.
“There's a mixture of, you know, anger and wishing that I could have done more as a coach,” said Gregory.
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Kevin was taken to the hospital with a head injury and underwent emergency brain surgery to relieve pressure in his skull, according to Gregory, who said doctors on Saturday initially gave Kevin 24 to 48 hours to live.
“Kevin has been fighting now for four days,” Gregory said Wednesday. “He has a very strong heartbeat, strong circulation, respiration. So we believe that he's fighting hard right now to recover.”
Gregory said Kevin was “a very hard-working, promising, talented young man,” adding he was “really a dream come true for a coach or a teacher, to have a young person that's that dedicated to the sport.”
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Kevin won a regional championship in Arizona in September, earning a belt nearly as big as he is.
“He won this relatively early in his competitive career,” Gregory said. “This is something that usually would take people several years to get to this point, that he got there in several months.”
Gregory said, without sidewalks or streetlights, the stretch of First Avenue where Kevin was hit - in an unincorporated area - has long been a concern for him.
“Cars are dangerous,” he said. “This street in particular has probably needed attention in different ways, from a lot of different angles.”
But his focus was on Kevin and his family’s long, uncertain road ahead.
“Prayer is the thing that we need the most right now,” Gregory said. “We're encouraged by people's prayers and people's support, and we hope that that continues until Kevin wakes up and is back with us.”
Kevin was scheduled for a national title fight in Queens, New York, on January 25, slated to take on an East Coast champion in a match that’s now on hold - but still written on the whiteboard calendar in Gregory’s gym.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to run that back, as we say, when Kevin is all better,” Gregory said, adding that his opponent for that event and his family had reached out to share their prayers.
“We compete with each other, but when it comes time to help each other, everybody is really there for each other,” Gregory said.
Now, Gregory and Kevin’s teammates want nothing more than to see him back in the ring.
“I'm in his corner in the gym and in the fight, and then all of myself and all of his teammates are in his corner now as he makes his recovery,” Gregory said.
Neither California Highway Patrol nor El Cajon police responded to requests for comment or information on the incident. Gregory said he believed the driver of the car was not ticketed or charged.
