There was a hellacious fight on Saturday night (November 22) that had dire consequences. The cruiserweight slugfest, which included multiple knockdowns, was eventually won by Ukraine's Ramazan Muslimov when he knocked out Poland's Michal Soczynski in the seventh round of a scheduled 10 in Chelms, Poland. There would be no count, such was the obvious severity of the fall, and after a failure to be immediately revived Soczynski was taken from the ring on a stretcher. At hospital he was placed in an induced coma as doctors feared a brain bleed. It has since thankfully been reported that he is out of the coma and starting to recover.
Soczynski found himself on the canvas twice in the opening round and again in the second. But before his third fall he registered a knockdown of his own when he floored Muslimov.
Muslimov was in control by the third but the bravery of Soczynski kept him in the contest. Yet the Ukrainian, 9-0 (6 KOs), continued to press ahead and wear down Soczynski, 11-1 (8 KOs), in the process.
Soczynski was dropped again in the sixth before the fatal seventh. Downed for a fifth time, Soczynski pluckily and instinctively regained his footing only for the contest to continue. A right hand from Muslimov proved the final blow, one that ended the fight and surely the career of Soczynski.
The Polish Boxing Union has suspended Soczynski indefinitely.