A mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter suffered a broken jaw and ruptured ear drum after being attacked by several people at a recent event.
Srikant Sekhar, a local New Delhi fighter, was victorious earlier in the night at Matrix Fight Night 9 this past Friday against Sumeet Khade.
Later on in the card, he was cageside to cheer on teammate Seth Rosario, when he claims he begun to get harassed by Afghanis in the crowd after calling out Zahor Shah in his post-fight interview earlier in the night.
Sekhar then claims MMA fighter Abdul Azim Badakhshi sucker punched him seconds after he left the arena following Khade’s win. After that, Sekhar says he was assaulted and chased by dozens of people as he tried to leave the venue. Sekhar was later rescued by the police, but claims he was “followed to the hospital that night.”
As a result of the incident, Sekhar claims he suffered a fractured jaw and ruptured eardrum.
“I have plates and screws in my jaw now and it will take a while to be back,” Sekhar said via text message to MMA Fighting. “I’m basically out of work now.”
You can watch footage of the incident below.
Sekhar admits he has filed criminal charges against Badakhshi. Matrix Fight Night also released a statement on the matter, saying “no Afghan fighter will ever feature on an MFN card again” after the “disturbing incident.”
They added “There is no sport like MMA, and any kind of disrespect and hooliganism will not be tolerated by us. I have always said that MFN is a family and as such we will take care of Srikant and look forward to his speedy recovery and return to the cage.”
Sekhar admits he did say “f*ck you” to Afghan fans in the crowd during Khade vs. Shah, which provoked fans to begin throwing objects at him.
“I think they didn’t like me, and at the same time Zahoor was also losing,” Sekhar said. “They couldn’t take it. I ignored that fact and started cheering for Seth as he was getting the finish, and again someone from the crowd threw paper garbage or plastic at me and they were showing middle fingers and looking at me, pointing at me out and mocking me. I got pissed on this bunch and said to them, ‘f*** you,’ and flipped back.
“Then one official caught my hand and was taking me out of cageside. He said, ‘Go out of here, this crowd is getting mad at you,’ and started escorting me out of ringside. I was going out with him and out of nowhere I got sucker punched by Abdul Badakshi from behind. I didn’t even see him coming [and didn’t know] where he was. He hit me twice, and I fell down. As I was on the floor, I saw officials pushing him and covering me up. Then the crowd breaks into the arena and starts stomping me.
“The officials and my teammates tried to protect me and they got beaten in the process. They told me to get away from the crowd. I went out and my teammate told me to run because there were like 70, 80 people running behind me. They were chasing me with bricks and rods for a kilometer. Near the exit there was a cop car. I jumped into he car and they threw bricks on the car and spit on me. They even hit the car. Then the police car somehow escaped the mob, and I was saved.”
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