Rafael Fiziev suffered a leg injury during the second round of his headlining fight against Mateusz Gamrot at UFC Fight Night 228 this past weekend and he’s now confirmed that he suffered a torn ACL.
The injury appeared to be a freak occurrence rather than anything his opponent had done, as replays showed his left knee had suddenly buckled while he was throwing a right kick, leading to him falling to the canvas in pain and the fight being waved off.
“My ACL Said SalamAlykom and Ran off!” Fiziev joked in the title of a video post on his Instagram page.
“I just want to say thank you for all your support,” Fiziev said in in the video. “I feel it, I see it in all the messages, in the comments. Thank you my brothers for support me and I will be back.
“I’m just sad because I had a very great camp, and I was ready to show my best skills. And I’m sad because it happened only in the second round. … We have plans, but God has different plans. His plan is always the best.”
Fiziev had been coming off a majority decision loss to Justin Gaethje prior to the Gamrot fight, which had ended a six-fight winning streak in the lightweight division.
Now he’s likely to face a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a typical torn ACL injury generally taking around 8 months to heal.
