Reigning Bellator bantamweight champion Vadim Nemkov commented on the severe injury to his former teammate Grigory Ponomarev, who suffered a severe knee sprain in his ACA Grand Prix quarterfinal bout against Mukhumat Vakhaev as early as the first minute and was unable to continue the fight.
“When I watched, I was horrified at how Grisha got injured,” Nemkov said in an interview with Okko MMA. “I don’t know what he has there, but from the way his leg twisted, I think everything is torn there. I don’t know when he can recover and go out to fight, because, as the doctors say, it would be better for the bone to break than for the ligaments to fall apart”
“Even though he’s posting videos of him training, the injury is very serious. Especially, this weight is not 70-80 kilograms – he has a weight of 130-140, races at 120. I think one of the main reasons for the injury is weight burning. He’s constantly on a diet, and he’s losing a lot of weight. The protein diet is leaching out the nutrients. I think you have to give your body a rest every once in a while and eat normal, high carbohydrate foods. Because of this I also have to go into weightlifting, because I was on a lot of diets, and it’s mostly protein diet”
Grigory Ponomarev, who ten days after the injury is moving independently and attending the gym, told his fans that he will have surgery, but categorically refused to voice the diagnosis, citing the team’s decision.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/32437-vadim-nemkov-nazval-veroyatnuyu-prichinu-travmy-grigoriya-ponomareva.html?rand=19907
