Footage of an Irish tourist in Turkey fighting off more than a dozen men in a street brawl has taken the Internet by storm.
In the video, Mohammed Fadel Dobbous, a Kuwait-born Irish citizen, according to Turkish news site Hurriet Daily News, approaches a small shop. When he opens a refrigerator, a deluge of bottled waters spills out, leading the shopkeeper and his friends to strike out at Dobbous.
The fight spills into the street, where Dobbous removes his sunglasses and holds his own even while being hit by blunt objects and being vastly outnumbered.
Though Dobbous told Show TV the fight was over the spilled water, the man who owned the shop, Senol Palan, said that he and Dobbous had an earlier dispute not on the widely circulated video after Palan wouldn’t sell him alcohol. Then Dobbous came back with a friend (who seemingly melted into the background when the fight broke out) and knocked the bottles out of the refrigerator, inciting the brawl.
“The man was so strong. He was toppling anyone he punched,” Palan told Show TV. “Then nearby shopkeepers rushed in to help.”
“It was like he was made of stone. He was not punching like a human.”
In a filmed interview with Show TV, Dobbous, sporting a sling on his left arm, said he never wavered when the mob rushed him but wished the incident hadn’t happened.
“No, no I wasn’t,” Dobbous said when asked if he was scared. “My hand … someone dislocated my shoulder… all this for water?”
Despite some publications calling him a boxer, Dobbous confirmed in the interview that he just trains and is not actually a fighter. That fact was echoed by The Mirror, who were told by the Boxing Union of Ireland that there is no boxer by that name.
The whole incident has made Dobbous a celebrity in Turkey. According to Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah, one supermarket started a “free water for the Irish tourist” promotion, and Dobbous has received several free tourism offers.
Unfortunately, Daily Sabah also reported that Dobbous underwent surgery for a skull fracture this weekend. Meanwhile, Hurriet News reports that according to Dobbous’s lawyer, Gökhan Cindemir, his client is looking to press charges against his assailants.
Boxer or not, Dobbous certainly showed his mettle against an angry mob.