NEW YORK _ Kemal Kolenovic, a middleweight boxer who emigrated from Montenegro, was killed outside a Bronx bar when he was struck by a car that drove onto the sidewalk, police and witnesses said.

The 28-year-old fighter was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital, police said.

Kolenovic was at a restaurant at 4 a.m. Sunday when several other men got into an argument about their native Eastern Europe. Kolenovic followed the men outside. According to his uncle, Kolenovic was trying to placate the other men.

One of the men involved in the quarrel got into a sport-utility vehicle and drove it onto the sidewalk, hitting Kolenovic, witnesses and police said. The driver then fled.

Kolenovic was 10-6 with two draws and five knockouts. He won his most recent fight, a first-round knockout last month of Ronny Glover at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York.