A bare-knuckle boxing match had to be stopped after one of the boxers, who once fought against Anthony Joshua at the Millennium Stadium and lost part of his ear during the fight.
The shocking injury was suffered by Welshman Dorian Darch during his fight against Ukrainian Volodymyr Skurtu at the Vale Sports Arena in Cardiff.
Darch and Skurtu faced off on the main card of BYB 30 in the Extreme Bare Knuckle Fighting Series.
A charged Darch got off to a quick start, knocking Skurtu to the ground with a powerful combination within the first minute.
But the Ukrainian could not be counted out and, after regaining his composure, struck hard himself. One of his punches split Darch’s left ear in half.
Darch appeared unfazed, even though blood was pouring down his chest, but referee Wayne Spinola stopped the fight and asked the medical team to examine the terrible wound.
The doctor then signaled that the fight should be stopped, whereupon Darch roared in frustration and threw his arms in the air.
GRAPHIC WARNING
The fans at the Vale Sports Arena booed this decision, but soon realised why it was necessary as part of Darch’s ear was hanging out.
“This is very unfortunate,” said one of the BYB commentators. “It’s an absolute travesty for Darch, but his left ear is cut in half as if it had been slashed with a butcher knife.”
“Last night was a bitter pill to swallow,” Darch posted on social media. “The old me would sulk right now, but I gave it my all, trained as hard as I’ve ever trained and actually tried to box.”
“And yet I can’t move forward, I’m unlucky. Incredible support for which I will be eternally grateful.”
“Special thanks to the doctor who fixed my ear and even let me sip my dark fruits the whole time lol we had to go through this again @bybbkb x.”
Darch became Joshua’s fourth victim when he was knocked out by the British heavyweight boxer in February 2014, two years after AJ won gold at the London Olympics and then turned professional.
Welsh fighter Darch, who finished his professional career with 12 wins and 12 losses, also lost to Joshua’s next opponent, Daniel Dubois, in 2017.
When asked how he expects With Joshua’s fight against Dubois on September 21, Darch recently said: “To be fair to Dubois, he has gotten a lot tougher since the Joyce fight.”
“I think he more or less gave up the fight, but Hrgovic hit him with a lot of right hooks and he kept fighting. But against Joshua you can’t take that many right hooks, he wears you down.”
“AJ has the power to knock you out with one punch and when Dubois hit me – I’ve seen him knock other guys out – he knocked me down, but they weren’t shock punches, he just knocked me out.”
“When AJ hit me in the temple, I lost consciousness, my legs were gone.”
A win over Dubois would give Joshua the IBF heavyweight title and could set up a highly anticipated undisputed fight with his British rival Tyson Fury.
Fury suffered the first defeat of his career in May when he lost on points to Oleksandr Usyk. The two will meet again in a rematch on December 21.
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