An Italian social media star was brutally dropped on his way to losing his first boxing fight against a winless journeyman in Belgium on Saturday night.
Alberto Frati, who runs the streaming service FightersLife, was 1-0 as a professional when he took to the ring to take on Bosnian Stefan Markovic in Liege. But he struggled to keep up the pace over six rounds, and with seconds to go in the fight, Markovic viciously dropped him with a right hand.
Frati showed heart to get up from the face-planting knockdown, but was unable to turn around the tide afterwards and lost a lopsided unanimous decision. Two judges scored every round to Markovic, who was 0-13 heading into the bout, while one gave the social media star one round.
It had been over two-and-a-half years since Frati won his debut against 13-53-6 journeyman Michael Isaac Carrero on a show in Malta. And he showed the ring rust throughout the bout, struggling to gain a foothold against the winless boxer. The brutal knockdown saw him land on his face, but he someone picked himself up to finish the fight.
Markovic had lost once already this year, and five times in 2021, before his fight with Frati. He had been stopped seven times, but showed little signs of being in danger over the six rounds with the social media star. Unlike most YouTube boxing matches outside of Jake Paul or KSI fights, the bout was a fully-sanctioned professional fight.
FightersLife is a YouTube channel with over half-a-million views since beginning in 2018, and broadcasts full boxing matches as well as interviews, lifestyle and fitness content and other boxing-related videos.
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It's the latest in a string of vicious moments to come from YouTubers stepping into the ring for boxing matches. Most recently, Brit Ryan Taylor was disqualified for head-butting American DK Money at the debut Showstar Boxing event in Wembley.
That was just months after Jake Paul brutally knocked out Tyron Woodley, his fourth career stoppage and second particularly gnarly knockout after putting down basketball star Nate Robinson in November 2020. Prior to that, it was New York's Slim Albaher who stole headlines when he stopped 3Bidaan in Dubai.
The Middle Eastern YouTuber had won his debut on the Social Knockout card before fighting Albaher, and provided a tough test. But he was ultimately put down brutally in the later moments of the fight, becoming a meme with fans across Twitter and Instagram.
