LONDON, ONT. -- When the 30-year-old Ontario kickboxer was a last-minute
substitute for a championship fight in Michigan, he thought it was a fast track
to the top.

It turned out to be his last fight. Derek Clements died on Wednesday after being
knocked down three times by a far more experienced fighter.

The fight could not have happened in Ontario. About 10 days before Derek died of
head injuries received in the Grand Rapids, Mich., fight, the Ontario athletics
commissioner refused to let him enter a prospective title fight in Toronto.

The father of two young children died at the London Health Sciences Centre,
where he had been transferred after brain surgery in Grand Rapids, the venue for
a so-called professional world-title super-middleweight fight last Sunday.

While comatose and barely clinging to life, he was moved back home so he could
fulfill his wish to donate his organs in Canada.

Derek's mother, Ramona, of Dartmouth, N.S., said that the family had wanted a
kidney and pancreas from her son to go to an ill niece in Toronto, but she was
not ready for surgery.

"We were so disappointed, but we're just happy numerous other people will live
because of Derek's gift," she said yesterday.

Ontario Athletics Commissioner Ken Hayashi, who regulates boxing and kickboxing
in the province, said he was approached by a fledgling kickboxing promoter who
wanted Derek for a Toronto match on April 17. Kickboxing has been legal in
Ontario since 1985.

"I turned it right down," Mr. Hayashi said. "I didn't think that Derek was quite
ready for a title fight. . . . I had some concerns. I didn't want him to get him
overmatched."

Mr. Hayashi said that Derek was a welterweight and should not have been fighting
in the heavier super-middleweight category. He said that Derek had been licensed
for two years but hadn't applied this year. Such an application involves medical
and neurological tests.

"I wish he had applied for his licence and had his medicals done," Mr. Hayashi
said. "Maybe we could have picked up on something. You never know."

But Mr. Clements's brother Devin, 24, and kickboxer Brad Fowler, 32, said
yesterday that Mr. Hayashi had seen Derek fight on two occasions and was being
too cautious.

"If Derek didn't have a chance to win [the Grand Rapids bout] we would have said
something," Mr. Fowler said. "We thought without a doubt in the world he
definitely had more than a chance to win. There was no thought of a mismatch or
that he wasn't ready."

Mr. Fowler said that Derek had passed medicals but had not yet applied for an
Ontario licence.

Devin and Mr. Fowler said that Derek's death was a "freak accident" that would
not change their view of kickboxing, a tough, vicious martial art in which
competitors can use both their hands and feet to pummel their opponents.

Mr. Hayashi said he has sanctioned about two kickboxing bouts a year for the
past few years, but there appears to be growing interest. This may be because
television sports networks need programming, he said.

Mick McNamara, who with his twin brother, Marty, are the main kickboxing
promoters in Ontario, said he will do a dozen kickboxing shows for TSN this
year.

"We know everybody," Mr. McNamara said. "We're the ones keeping the sport
alive."

Devin and Mr. Fowler said that they believe Derek is the first Canadian
kickboxer to die of injuries received in a bout and that the risk of being
killed by a car is far greater.

"If any of us stopped fighting, we know Derek would be mad," Devin said.

Derek was to have fought in the undercard but was asked to fight in the 12-round
title bout when a combatant backed out because of an injury.

"He was so happy," Devin recalled. " 'I'm going to it fast. I'm going to be the
world champion.' It was a great fight, you know. At no point was the fight
tainted."

Derek was knocked down three times in the fight, including twice in the eighth
round, and lost the match to Doug LaFontsee of Wyoming.

According to Devin and Mr. Fowler, who were in Derek's corner, he appeared lucid
and coherent after the fight and gave a post-bout interview. He complained about
a headache, "but he had just been in a fight," Devin said. "Everybody's going to
have a headache."

Trouble started when he took a shower in his hotel room and couldn't get warm.
Devin recalled: "We were walking down the hall, and he said, 'Little brother,
you know I can fight better.' He was all mad because he had a plan, but he
didn't stick to his fight plan. He just went out and fought his heart out.

"He said: 'You know I can fight better than that. Dev, you know that. We'll get
him next time.' He started depending on me more, leaning on me. I was kind of
carrying him; he wasn't making sense."

Devin said that by the time Derek made it to hospital, he knew his brother was
in desperate condition.

"I'm his brother, you know. It was the first time I had ever seen him like that.
You know, but you don't let yourself know. He was invincible."

Derek's funeral is today. He leaves his fiancé, Fiona, a kickboxer studying to
become a school teacher, and two children, Derek Dragon, 3, and Aysia Dionovan,
6. Derek has another brother, Adam, 23.

Yesterday, his family and friends celebrated his life.

As well as teaching kung fu and kickboxing at a club he owned, and training
relentlessly himself, Derek worked as a fishmonger in a London market.

"He had a huge spark of life; he had so much energy," Devin said. "When he was
happy, he gave off this energy that could make everybody smile. He touched
everyone that he knew."

Said Mr. Fowler: "Derek gave me confidence. I never had a fight as tough as
sparring with Derek. He pushed me to be the best I could be. He brought the best
out of me, made me more confident. . . . He inspired so many people, brought out
the best in everybody."


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