A FORMER opponent of Anthony Joshua suffered a horror injury as his ear was left hanging off his head in a bare-knuckle boxing fight.

Dorian Darch was AJ’s fourth pro rival in boxing, with the two men colliding in February 2014.

Dorian Darch’s ear was left hanging off his head during a bare-knuckle fight

Darch was beaten by Anthony Joshua a decade agoCredit: Action Images – Reuters

Joshua put the Welshman to the sword at the Cardiff International Arena with an incredible second round KO.

Darch has since moved into the explosive world of bare-knuckle fighting instead.

But the 40-year-old heavyweight suffered a huge problem on Saturding during his Extreme Bare Knuckle Fighting Series clash with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Skurtu.

The two men battered the brakes off each other on the main card of the BYB 30 event.

However, the fight had to be called off when Darch received a series of blows to his head.

One of Skurtu’s punches was so hard it split Darch’s left ear in half, leaving it hanging off the Welshman’s head.

The crowd booed as the referee waved off the fight, with a medical team needed to stop the bleeding.

A commentator said: “This is very unfortunate. It’s an absolute travesty for Darch but his left ear is cut down the middle like a butcher’s knife has been taken to it.”

Darch’s ear looked like it’d been sliced ‘by a butcher’s knife’

Darch was also left covered in his own blood

The veteran fighter later expressed his disappointment on social media before thanking doctors for saving his ear.

Darch said: “Tough pill to swallow. The old me would have been pouting but I gave it my all, trained the hardest I ever have and actually tried to box.

“And I still came up short. My luck is poxed. Unbelievable support which I will be forever grateful for.

“Special thanks to the doctor who patched up my ear and even let me sip my darkfruits throughout lol. we got to run that back.”

Darch also delivered his thoughts on Joshua’s upcoming fight against Daniel Dubois, who he also fought and lost to with a second-round KO in 2017.

He added: “In all fairness to Dubois, since the Joyce fight he’s got a lot tougher.

“I think he more ore less gave up in that fight, but Hrgovic caught him with loads of right hands and he kept fighting.

“But you can’t take that many right hands against Joshua, he’ll put you to sleep.

“AJ’s got one punch knockout power, and Dubois, when he hit me, I’ve seen him knockout other boys out, he was hitting me down but they weren’t concussive punches they were just bowling me over.

“Whereas AJ hit me in the temple, I lost my sense, my legs were gone.”