Boxing champ Aidos Yerbossynuly in medically induced coma after knockout punch by challenger David Morrell

Before Saturday night's fight on November 5, Yerbossynuly had won each of his 16 professional bouts, and the WBA had him ranked as its top 'super middleweight' contender. Nevertheless, as a talented Cuban fighter based in Minneapolis with a secondary WBA title in the 168-pound category, Morrell posed a special challenge. According to the scorecards and punch statistics, Morrell won the fight by a wide margin. While one judge had Yerbossynuly down 108-101 going into the 12th, the other two had him losing every round. Morrell immediately walked over to assist Yerbossynuly in getting to a stool in his corner after first celebrating the victory in the ring.

“I actually had the towel in my hand” said Savoy, who actually wanted the fight to stop in the 10th round. He further said, “Aidos wanted to continue. His head coach (Kanat Orakbaev) wanted him to continue. He evaluated Aidos and said nothing was wrong with him.” However, Yerbossynuly was ultimately defeated in the 12th round by a straight left hand.

CompuBox reports that Morrell defeated Yerbossynuly by a margin of 237-82. More than 70% of Morrell's strikes that connected were powerful blows to the head. As he continued to move forward and attempt to finish the battle, Yerbossynuly suffered a gash across his nose and substantial swelling in his right eye.

Weeks struggled at times to separate the two competitors as Yerbossynuly repeatedly held onto Morrell in the final minute of the round, earning him a one-point deduction. After Weeks docked Yerbossynuly a point, Morrell secured the knockdown with a powerful right hook less than ten seconds later.