The heartbroken boyfriend of tragic up-and-coming boxer Hannah Rapp – who was run over and killed while cycling, allegedly by a road rage driver – tearfully revealed at a memorial service that he was secretly planning to propose to her.
“You didn’t know it, but we were going ring shopping as part of your birthday present,” Dr. Will Pollalis said at a memorial in Texas Thursday for the featherweight who would have turned 27 next Wednesday.
“I’m so sorry I waited,” Pollalis, a Texas A&M University engineering professor, said through to tears to his girlfriend of five years, according to KHOU.
Hannah Rapp’s boyfriend, Will Pollalis, spoke about his girlfriend at her memorial. KHOU 11
“I love you. I miss you,” he told Rapp at the memorial in College Station.
“Be with me still. Give me strength and guide me. I can’t do it without you.”
Rapp, known as “Hannibal” in the boxing world, was struck — allegedly by career criminal Charles Eric Medina — while she was cycling with Pollalis in Brazos County on Saturday.
Medina, 31, allegedly sped past the pair on a two-lane highway with just a foot to spare, causing Pollalis to throw up his hands and yell toward the vehicle, according to an affidavit reported by KBTX.
He then allegedly hit the brakes and skidded before reversing his vehicle into Rapp.
Rapp’s head hit the rear window and she fell onto the road.
She died from her injuries in hospital – just a week before her 27th birthday. But Pollalis was not hit or hurt.
Rapp smiling with Pollalis, a university professor. William Pollalis / Facebook
He told law enforcement he feared for his life and said he didn’t know what the driver would do.
Medina, who lives two miles from the fatal crash site, was arrested on charges of manslaughter. He has since been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
After his arrest, it emerged that he possessed a lengthy rap sheet.
He had racked up a whopping 13 previous arrests in Brazos County alone since 2012, according to jail records.
Rapp was a promising featherweight boxer. Facebook/Bryan Boxing
He was cuffed for reckless driving and evading arrest with a vehicle in 2012 and pleaded guilty to both cases, ESPN reported.
Medina was arrested again for reckless driving in 2014, for a hit-and-run in 2020, and most recently for discharging a firearm in 2024 and evading arrest in 2025, the outlet said.
The two most recent court cases remain open, and it’s unclear what the outcome of the other cases was, according to the report.
Rapp was a former track star at Purdue University before moving to Texas in 2024 where she worked as an environmental health and safety specialist.
She pursued a boxing career and challenged for the WBC women’s featherweight title just weeks before her death.
Tiara Brown, who defeated Rapp in the title bout, described the late boxer as “the best dance partner I have ever faced as a pro.”
“When she asked for my autograph, it filled my heart because we were getting ready for war, yet she was still asking for my autograph,” she wrote on Instagram.
“It made me smile, we fought a GREAT fight for the fans from the 1st bell to the last! It was my honor to share the ring with her.”
