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Up and coming MMA fighter Egor Kostyuchenko holds a 4-1 record in his career so far with his last fight being a win against Suntichai Sakchai in June ’22. He is actually undefeated in his last 4 fights and only suffered a loss in his MMA debut, but it is a wild video shot on the streets of Philadelphia that has his name in the news this week.
As is the case with any professional/aspiring athlete, Egor Kostyuchenko pretty much trains around the clock. He eats, sleeps, and trains. But also finds time to make money with his side hustle as a food delivery driver in the gig economy between workouts.
MMA Fighter Chases Down Car Thieves In Philadelphia
This week, he was dropping off a delivery at 11th and Race streets and naively left his car running while taking the food to the door. When he got back he saw thieves stealing his car so he chased them down on foot and jumped into the window. The thieves sped away with him hanging on and eventually shots were fired from inside the car. As all of this was going on, a passerby was filming the car being stolen.
In the video, the thieves can be seen exiting a black Jeep Cherokee and getting into Egor Kostyuchenko’s Mercedes Benz. Police would later determine that the Jeep was also stolen. They abandoned the Jeep after grabbing Egor’s 2008 white Mercedes but he showed up as all of this was happening.
Egor Kostyuchenko told Philadelphia’s ABC6 Action News how it all went down. He said “My car stopped with traffic. I grabbed my door and said, ‘Stop the car, it’s my car.” The thieves told him “(He said) don’t touch car, I kill you.”
His phone was on the car and it was later found on Philly’s Ben Franklin Bridge. This led police to believe the thieves took his car to New Jersey as the bridge goes from Phill to Camden, NJ.
4 of his 5 fights have taken place in his native Ukraine. Egor’s most recent MMA fight was in Thailand. But he moved here from Ukraine eight months ago as Ukraine’s war to push out Russia continues into its 18th month.
Kostyuchenko says people warn him about Philadelphia, saying “People told me every time, ‘Philadelphia, it’s a different city. You need to be careful.” This was also the second time in under a year of him living in Philadelphia that he has been robbed.
There is now a GoFundMe set up to help raise funds for Egor. He worked as an Uber + Uber Eats driver to support his MMA career but without a car he is obviously unable to do so. The GoFundMe has raised $13,596 so far from 189 donations.
Philadelphia was recently ranked as the 29th most dangerous city in the United States, for violent crimes, with a violent crime rate of 999 per 100,000. The city saw 15,668 recorded violent crimes in 2022.