The New Year couldn’t have started any worse for ARENA’s “Lion” Mahir Oral. At the ARENA training camp in Mallorca Oral suffered a new injury on his right hand which had been broken twice in the last 13 months forcing the 27-year-old middleweight to several surgeries.
Therefore “The Lion” has to pull out of his IBF Eliminator against Fulgencio Zuniga scheduled for the end of February. Maybe this new setback even puts an end to his career.
ARENA-physiscian Dr. Michael Kerneck: “There is no way Mahir can fight until the end of March. The bone is fragile now. If he stepped into the ring with Zuniga the hand would certainly break again within the first two rounds.”
Oral broke his hand for the first time in December 2006 right before his scheduled WBC international championship bout against Domenico Spada. Four months later he came back to beat Spada in an exciting 12-round-battle only to suffer a new injury in summer so that he had to pull out of his rematch against Spada to undergo surgery.
Mahir: “After the last operation everything was perfect. I felt great, my hand had been better than ever before. And now something like that… I am shocked, I just can’t believe it, this is one of the worst days of my life. But I came back before – I hope I can do it again!”
ARENA-CEO Ahmet Öner: “Unfortunately, injuries happen in professional sports. I feel very sad for Mahir especially as we had him in such a good position. Chances to fight for the World Championship don’t come every day. I hope that Mahir has the chance to come back – he’s still a young man – but at the moment the truth is that we just don’t know…”
