Boxer on Oleksandr Usyk vs Dubois card furious after staff refused hospital trip

Anthony Yigit, who fought on the undercard before Oleksandr Usyk’s win over Daniel Dubois, has slammed event organisers for failing to stitch up a cut on his eyebrow and initially refusing to take him to the hospital. Yigit lost on points to Denys Berinchyk after going into the bout as the clear underdog and was left with a nasty gash above his eye.

Yigit was bloodied and bruised after the final bell in Poland but was initially denied a hospital trip by event bosses given that his injuries were deemed ‘non life-threatening’. They also lacked the necessary equipment to stitch him up at the stadium, which resulted in his gaping wound being left untreated for several hours.

The Swede was left furious by the situation and took to X, formerly Twitter, to demand an explanation. He wrote: “Need to get my eyebrow stitched but apparently they didn’t have the tools for it in the arena. Also they couldn’t take me to the hospital cuz my injuries aren’t life threatening. Been four hours with an open cut on my eyebrow now.”

Yigit later posted a video from outside the hospital, in which he accused the promotional company of failing in their duty of care to fighters. He also questioned what might have happened if his cut was as bad as the one suffered by Badou Jack, who needed 25 stitches on his forehead due to an accidental headbutt in his fight with Marcus Browne in 2019.

The 31-year-old explained: “After the fight I had a cut here [above the left eyebrow] and a cut on my head and also this [right eye] has swollen up. I told them I needed a stitch and they told me in the event that they can’t do it because they don’t have the equipment for it.

“I needed to go to a hospital to do it because they had the equipment there. I said ‘okay, so let’s go’ and they said ‘no, we can’t take you to the hospital’. I said ‘why?’. They said ‘because the ambulance is only for life-threatening injuries’. So I’m like ‘okay, so what am I supposed to do?’

“They told me that I needed to get to the hospital by myself. So basically, I just fought my f****** heart out and then they just were like ‘oh, thank you so much but get the f*** out of here because we don’t care anymore’. I came to the hospital after a lot of fighting. Finally they decided to get me to the hospital with the ambulance, they just dumped me there.

“Luckily they could stitch me up and now I’m outside the hospital with no ride, I’m just standing here. K2 Promotions, I expected much better from you. You guys are supposed to make sure that fighters are safe. I’m just lucky I didn’t get a cut like Badou Jack or some of the other cuts. What’s going to happen then, if I get cut that bad and you can’t stitch it up, what’s happening then?”

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