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Former boxing world champion Billy Dib has revealed he has cancer, six years after losing his first partner to leukaemia.
The 37-year-old Sydneysider described the situation as “frightening” after intense stomach pain last week led to the discovery of a tumour.
Dib, who held the IBO super-featherweight title in 2008 and the IBF featherweight belt in 2011, has since undergone surgery.
He said he was initially sent home from hospital with painkillers before seeking out another doctor, who found a five centimetre cancerous tumour.
“Despite sharing the ring with some dangerous opponents in my career, this is one of the most frightening situations I have found myself in,” Dib wrote in a Facebook post.
“I am so grateful that they took my pain so seriously and together with my brother Mohammad and Dr. Pham I am grateful that they took action which saved my life.
“At the moment I am recovering from the surgery and it has been tough. I have been unable to eat for the last 9 days and am contemplating a return to the featherweight division (jokes).”
He added on Twitter that “cancer has picked the wrong opponent, I have to [sic] much to live for” with a photo of himself with his wife, Berry, and son, Laith.
Dib was in Melbourne recently for the George Kambosos-Devin Haney world-title rematch, and has been filming a television show called The Challenge.
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He was also at a press conference that turned physical last week, supporting his cousin, fellow boxer Billel Dib.
Dib lost his wife Sara in 2016 due to complications stemming from her leukaemia treatment. The pair brought forward their wedding to two weeks after her diagnosis and she died just six weeks later.
Dib remarried and welcomed a son three years later. He retired in 2018 but made a return to the ring a year later and has fought five times since.
His last fight was on the Gold Coast in March, with a victory over Jacob Ng bringing his record to 48 wins and six losses.
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