Iuri Lapicus has died after a motorbike accident in Italy. The 27 year old competed in ONE Championship’s lightweight and welterweight divisions and faced the likes of Christian Lee and Eddie Alvarez.
He was a training partner of Giorgio Petrosyan who paid tribute to the Moldovan in an emotional Instagram post:
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Lost control
According to Milano Today the accident occurred at around noon last Friday. Lapicus lost control of his motorbike and no other vehicles were initially involved.
A 69 year old woman was also involved in the accident although it doesn’t appear that she was injured. Apparently Lapicus body collided with her car after he was thrown from the motorbike and she is being treated for shock.
Lapicus was immediately airlifted to hospital. He was in a coma for three days but subsequently died from his injuries.
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Title challenger
The Moldovan was undefeated when he signed with ONE Championship and won his first two fights. He submitted Shannon Wiratchai and Marat Gafurov and was rewarded with title shot.
Lapicus was matched with reigning champion Christian Lee at ONE: ‘Inside the Matrix’ but was stopped in the opening round. His next fight took place on one of the promotion’s biggest cards.
Lapicus was matched with former UFC and Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez at ONE on TNT 1. He was initially awarded a win when the veteran was disqualified for landing a series of illegal shots to the back of the head.
However that result was subsequently overturned and the fight officially goes down as a no contest. Lapicus’ last fight was on another big card, he faced former welterweight champion Zebaztian Kadestam at ONE Fight Night 1.
It was the first ONE Championship event to ever be broadcast live on Prime Video and Lapicus’ welterweight debut. He was stopped by the Swedish fighter in the opening round.
