Former AMC Fight Nights champion Grigory Ponomarev, who suffered a severe leg injury in the first minute of his ACA Heavyweight Grand Prix quarterfinal match against Mukhumat Vakhaev, addressed his fans as well as his opponent, who was the winner of an early finish bonus.
“Well guys, motto of the day, ‘Got him, I took the bonus,'” Ponomarev wrote on social media. “And now to business. To everyone who was sick and worried – you can already recover. At times like this it’s nice to see your support, even more than on your birthday.”
“I don’t want to make excuses. I’ll just say that it’s nice to see your support – it energizes me and will get me back on my feet soon. There’s gonna be a movement in our yard.”
“And I’ll tell you what, ‘worthy’ – I don’t need an ACA belt, I need a kneepad made of your lion black leather, knockout!”
The heavyweight bout, which was the second main event of the ACA 161 tournament, ended after Ponomarev sprained his knee in the thirtieth second of the first round and Vakhaev rushed to finish his injured opponent and landed several punches to the head before the referee managed to pull him away and call medics to the cage.
Vakhaev broke a finger in the pursuit, and after the fight said he regretted pouncing on the injured Ponomarev in the heat of the fight without noticing the injury.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/32346-grigorij-ponomarev-sdelal-zayavlenie-posle-porazheniya.html?rand=19907
