A professional world championship boxing bout descended into chaos when a savage mass brawl erupted inside the ring. Turkey’s Emirkhan Kalkhan and Russia’s Sergei Gorokhov squared off at the Besirli Sports Hall in a contest for the UBO world championship.
Tensions reached boiling point following the second round, after Gorokhov secured a stoppage victory over his opponent. The Russian was overjoyed as he celebrated with his corner team before making his way over to Kalkhan to seemingly check in on his opponent.
A member of Kalkhan’s entourage then shoved Gorokhov away, before one of his cornermen charged over to deliver a push of his own. The situation rapidly spiralled out of control as both sets of corner teams clashed, before spectators stormed into the ring to exchange punches and kicks.
Plastic chairs were hurled into the ring as Gorokhov’s trainer was set upon and kicked by a group of men. The boxer himself was blindsided as he desperately pleaded for the violence to cease, before he was set upon by another group.
As he fell to the canvas, Gorokhov was beaten with chairs and subjected to a barrage of kicks, disappearing beneath a wave of frenzied attackers. A separate clip, meanwhile, shows Gorokhov’s cornerman, Igor Sudalainen, sprawled on the floor clutching his head as security personnel and some of Kalkhan’s team attempted to restore order.
In the wake of the incident, Gorokhov took to social media to post an update from a nearby hospital. Sharing a message via the stories section of his Instagram account, he said: “Hello everyone. We’re currently in a hospital in Turkey.
“Ismail [trainer] has suffered a head injury and is having an MRI scan right now. I’ve come through it the least badly. The gloves helped protect me. Who saw the broadcast? There were probably about 80 people there attacking us.”
“They got in the ring and beat us up after our brilliant victory in the second round, where we knocked this fighter out twice. But the Turks behaved very badly.
“But thank God, everyone is alive. That’s the sort of brawl that happened, a tough one. I’ll tell you more later. We’ve got a police escort now; we’ll head straight from the hotel to our rooms.
“I don’t think we’ll be staying there tonight. If anyone tries to pull a stunt, we’ll fly straight to Georgia. Then we’ll drive through Georgia overnight to Mineralnye Vody, and from there to Kaliningrad.
“Thanks to everyone for your support. We’ll be in touch. I’ll tell you everything tomorrow. The world champion’s belt – we’ve got a world champion in Russia, in Kaliningrad, in boxing. It was a very good fight.”
Gorokhov subsequently posted a further video on Instagram, confirming that he and his team had arrived safely in Georgia. He said: “We are in Georgia. We have the belt, we are the champions. Thank you very much for your support friends.”