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<h3><a href="/go=news.detail&gid=457255" target="_blank">
Fighter forgives machete attackers
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<a href="/go=news.detail&gid=457255" ><img class="photo" src="http://img.mixedmartialarts.com/method=get&rs=100&q=75&x=3&y=41&w=700&h=372&ro=0&s=blood-05-19-2016-10-44-32-554.jpg" /></a>
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<p style="line-height: 20.8px;">On Wednesday, Hamburg, Germany was the site of one of the worst dojo storms since Count Dante lost his best friend Jim Koncevic to the wrong end of a trident, when the pair attacked the Green Dragon Society's Black Cobra Hall in Chicago on April 24, 1970. 4-3 MMA fighter Abeku Afful was in a room at his <a href="http://hammerbrookgym.de/" style="line-height: 20.8px;">Hammerbrook Gym</a><span style="line-height: 20.8px;"> finishing up training by himself for a fight on Saturday, when five men armed with clubs, knives, and a machete arrived at about at 9:45 p.m. </span></p>
The group attacked hey attacked Afful, leaving him with life threatening injuries. The resulting images are so severe that they are at the very least not safe for work.
Witnesses identified the attacker via voice and stature as Ismail Cetinkaya, 34, a 7-4 MMA fighter, who runs the rival MMA Hamburg gym. Cetinkaya and two accomplices have been arrested.
Figures close to the situation report that Afful had been a student of Cetinkaya's but broke away to open up his own gym. A female instructor at Cetinkaya's MMA Hamburg also was reportedly training at Hammerbrook Gym?. An incensed Cetinkaya had reportedly been texting threats.
Cetinkaya is known in the MMA community for his opposition to ISIL and radicalism generally, and for his MMA victory over Deso Dogg the former German rapper who now fights for ISIL in Syria. Thus the incident does not appear to have any political motive. It was a simple case of petty jealousy, taken to a bizarre level.
Afful underwent emergency surgery for a severed artery and tendon from the machete attack, and his condition is no longer life threatening. He is recovered enough to post a message on Facebook, forgiving his attackers, but noting that God may not. The fighter also thanked his friends and students in the gym for stopping the attack and saving his life.
"It was not the police who have saved me," we wrote, according to Google translate. "The people who have saved me ... were two friends ... I wouldn't be here, I'd have died. I owe you my life... Thank you."
The fighter named his friends Kurt Braun and Julian Georgescu?. The fighter also addressed his attackers.
"And the perpetrators, I forgive you," he wrote. "It remains to be seen if God does."
"Now I lay me down a bit. It remains to be seen if I can ever fight again. At least I haven't lost my leg. Thank you to all who kept me in your thoughts and prayers."
The fighters final message was that he was going back in for further surgery.
Victim Abeku Afful
Short video profile of Afful.
ABEKU - A Short Portrait from filmbrandt on Vimeo.
Alleged atacker Ismail Cetinkaya
Crime scene photos. Warning: These are gruesome.
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