Mukhumat Vakhayev responded to Grigory Ponomarev’s statement

“At the moment I’m not upset about his injury one bit,” Vakhaev said in an interview with Aslanbek Badaev. “I believe that what a man deserved, that’s what he got. He made remarks after the fight about me, allegedly he needs a kneepad made of my lion black leather, but most likely he needs a muzzle made of my lion skin. His behavior is feminine. Looks like a grizzly, but has a mouse heart.”

After re-watching the fight several times, Vakhaev concluded that his opponent’s injury was not accidental, but was a direct consequence of a blow he had prepared in training camp and delivered at the very beginning of the fight.

“I reviewed the fight more than once. When it started, there was a low-kick from my side, which I had been practicing for more than one day, knowing that his legs were weak. I prepared that low-kick for three months, loaded it a hundred times each time, and it went in for him one hundred percent. I was watching the video – his knee was gone, his internal ligaments were already partially torn. His knee was about 20 centimeters inward. As a result, he has an unstable numb knee, partially torn ligaments, he stands on that leg, and the leg goes out”

Vakhaev, who brutally finished his collapsed opponent, claims he did not notice Ponomarev’s injury at the time.

“At that moment I didn’t see the leg, and I shouldn’t even consider his legs, knees. I went to the fight with a promise to smash his face, and I fulfilled it. I did everything for the people, for the public, and I will continue to please them. If he recovers, if he wants a rematch, at any time, even at 12 o’clock at night, we’ll go out with him and we can arrange a rematch. No problem. Not just in the cage.”