Hamburg, Germany, Wednesday 18-5-2016- At least five masked men stormed on Wednesday evening, the MMA academy of Abeku Afful, a German MMA fighter with a 4-3 record. Affu was alone, training for his upcoming fight on Saturday in Bremen. The masked beat him up, armed with Machetes, knives. Source.
Witnesses identified one of the masked men as Ismail Cetinkaya, the head coach of Hamburger Kampfsportschule. Ismail Cetinkaya and two accomplices were arrested.
Suspect Ismail Cetinkaya
Cetinkaya once fought and beat Deso Dogg the former German rapper who is today, one of the most notorious German fighters with the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria. Cetinkaya is known in the German MMA community as somebody who opposes ISIS and all forms of radicalism.
What caused this? According to people associated with the two parties, the reason is simple and incomprehensible. Afful, once a student of Ismail C., became independent and formed his own team. Since Afful had left his former coach and was successful, there was friction.
Afuul’s injury
The cause of this incident seems to have been a person who had been training in the gym of Ismail C., but started training with Afful. Ismail C. is said to have threatened and insulted Afful via SMS.
Afful to end this dispute, had a MMA fight promoter contact the ex-coach to ask for a fight against his former coach. This will probably never come about due to current events.
The victim Abeku Afful
Afful is currently in the hospital, and had an emergency operation at night. He was injured by a machete on the leg. Whether he ever fight again or sport activities is not yet known.
The UFC plans on September 9, an event in Hamburg, tickets go next week on sale. The current incident in the Hamburg scene is very bad publicity for the planned event.
