Why was UFC Paris fighter Volkan Oezdemir arrested? Here's the current status of the felony charge against him

UFC light heavyweight fighter Volkan Oezdemir is set to return to the octagon against Bogdan Guskov at UFC Paris this weekend. Interestingly, he has had a troublesome past and was arrested back in 2017 on felony charges.

In August 2017, Oezdemir was involved in a bar fight in South Florida. He was charged with second-degree felony battery with great bodily harm. The alleged victim, Kevin Cohen, claimed that the UFC fighter knocked him out and was unconscious for 14 minutes.

If found guilty, he could've been sentenced to up to 15 years in Jail with a bond of $10,000. However, the case was dropped after about a year, in July 2018, when the alleged victim in the case refused to cooperate. As a result, he was cleared of all charges that hung over his head and the overseas bookings he had to face.

Since he isn't a citizen of the United States of America, his passport was also taken from him as a condition of the bail he had received. However, with the charges being cleared, Volkan Oezdemir got his passport back after waiting for nearly a year.

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Details of the incident that got Volkan Oezdemir in legal trouble

Back in 2017-2018, Volkan Oezdemir was a rising contender in the UFC’s light heavyweight division. He grabbed a lot of headlines for his tremendous knockout ability and also for being one of the first contenders to come from Switzerland. The then 27-year-old did not display any signs of trouble or misbehavior during his UFC appearances. However, the news of ‘No Time’s arrest in 2017 came as a bit of a surprise for many.

According to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department report obtained by MMA Fighting, the victim Kevin Cohen claimed that he was inside a bar called Capone’s on August 12, 2017. He learned that an unidentified man had knocked out his friend, Sergio Sandoval, following a verbal altercation. Cohen went out to understand what was going on. However, he was knocked out unconscious. He was taken to the hospital immediately and remained unconscious for 14 minutes.

The hospital staff had to treat Cohen for concussion symptoms and give him multiple staples for lacerations. The alleged victim learned that it was UFC fighter Volkan Oezdemir that hurt him and his friend. Oezdemir was released from custody after the payment of a $10,000 bond. During the trials, Volkan Oezdemir’s lawyer argued that his client’s actions were justified in the situation and that he was not an aggressor in the entire incident.