Kazakh Super Middleweight Aidos Yerbossynuly is in a Medically Induced Coma

Kazakh super middleweight Aidos Yerbossynuly was taken to the Hennepin County Medical Center for evaluation following his brutal bout with David Morrell on Saturday night at the Minneapolis Armory. Doctors discovered a brain bleed and placed him in a medically induced coma before performing surgery to alleviate pressure on his brain. Owing to health privacy laws, his current status is unknown.

The bout between Yerbossynuly and Morrell was the featured attraction of a PBC promotion that aired on Showtime. It was the eighth pro fight for the undefeated Morrell, a 24-year-old southpaw who was defending his WBA (secondary) 168-pound title.

Yerbossynuly, 30, turned pro in 2015 in the Ukraine. In 2017, he had two fights on small club shows in the U.S. before returning to his homeland to resume his career. He was 16-0 (11) heading into his match with the highly-touted Morrell who was 7-0 (6) and a veteran of the Cuban amateur system. The last of Yerbossynuly’s victories was a 10^th-round stoppage of Lennox Allen who had previously gone the distance with Morrell. For this bout, he trained in Las Vegas under Kay Koroma, one of the sport’s brightest young coaches. Koroma was with him in Minneapolis, but in a subordinate role in his corner.

From the opening bell, it was clear that David Morrell was the more skilled fighter. By the fifth round, Yerbossynuly’s face was a bloody mess. But the Kazakh was game to the core, consistent with his pre-fight declarations. “We are descendants of Nomadic warriors,” he said of the country that gave the world Genghis Khan. “We’re not scared of any challenges.”

On occasion, Yerbossynuly had some good moments as the bout moved along. But those moments were few as indicated by the scorecards. After 11 rounds, Morrell had swept every round on two of the cards and was ahead by 7 points on the card of judge Mike Fitzgerald who awarded Yerbossynuly rounds 6 and 7.

In round 12, Yerbossynuly was on the deck twice. After being knocked down the first time, he was so insistent on making it to the final bell that he was docked a point for holding. But the second knockdown, which came with about 40 seconds to go in the contest, was vicious. A hellacious right hook knocked him down hard and referee Tony Weeks didn’t bother to count. When he arose on unsteady legs, Morrell put his arm around him and helped him to his corner.

Weeks is an experienced ref but one cannot help but wonder if things would have turned out differently if Mark Nelson had been the third man in the ring. A Minnesotan who invariably gets all the choice assignments in his home state, Nelson, one of the top referees in the world, was unavailable. He was in far-off Abu Dhabi where he refereed the IBF 130-pound world title fight between Shavkat Rakhimov and Zelfa Barrett, the co-feature to the match between Dmitry Bivol and Gilberto Ramirez.

The news that Aidos Yerbossynuly had been hospitalized and placed into a coma was broken by former USA Today and ESPN fight writer Dan Rafael on his “Fight Freaks Unite” newsletter. It may bode well for the stricken Kazakh that the doctors were able to get to him quick as the hospital where he was taken is only a few blocks from the arena. A spokesman for his promoter, Suleimen Promotions, announced on his social media platform that he was expected to make a full recovery. Nonetheless, please keep him in your prayers.

Photo credit: Esther Lin / SHOWTIME

This is a developing story that we will update as new details become available.

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