Rizvan Kuniev suffered shin muscle tear from Alexander Volkov's first low kick at UFC 333, coach says

Rizvan Kuniev was badly hurt by the very first low kick Alexander Volkov landed in their heavyweight fight at UFC 333, according to Kuniev's coach Tagir Iskhakov. Iskhakov said the kick, in the middle of the first round, caused a crack and a tear in a muscle on Kuniev's shin, and that the Russian heavyweight fought the remaining rounds injured. Volkov won a unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27) at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, October 24.

Iskhakov spoke to the Russian outlet Ushatayka. His comments were published by Sports.ru on Sunday, October 25. Neither the UFC nor Kuniev's team has released an official medical report, and no recovery timeline has been announced.

'Rizvan fought on character'

"From the very first low kick [in the middle of the first round], Rizvan suffered a serious injury," Iskhakov said, as quoted by Sports.ru. "We prepared for the low kicks, we knew they would come, but unfortunately we didn't manage to block it. For all three rounds Rizvan fought on character. He tried to do what he could."

Iskhakov said the plan had been to keep his head moving, go from the body to the head, clinch and wrestle. He also said the injury had been building before fight night. "There is such a thing as the same injury building up, when that spot is hit often in sparring and in fights. Rizvan's muscle was already bruised. But after the first kick there was a crack and a tear of that muscle on the shin," he said.

The coach also said the fight was "even" despite the injury. The judges did not agree, and all three scored it for Volkov.

Hospital trip after the fight

UFC officials confirmed to MMA Mania that Kuniev was taken to a local hospital after the event for precautionary X-rays on his leg. MMA Mania reported on Sunday that the results of the scans had not been made public.

Official UFC statistics show Volkov landed 14 of 18 significant strikes to the legs and 74 of 150 significant strikes overall, against 51 of 87 for Kuniev. Kuniev went 0 for 4 on takedown attempts, and Volkov spent the last 90 seconds on his back hunting for a rear-naked choke.

Calf kicks in sparring

The two Russians once trained together. Before the fight, Volkov told Sport-Express that during their old sparring sessions Kuniev had asked him, through his coach, to stop throwing calf kicks because they were hurting him. "Maybe he had an injury, it's hard to say," Volkov said on October 20.

What it means

The loss ended Kuniev's two-fight winning run, which included wins over Tyrell Fortune and Jailton Almeida, and left him 2-2 in the UFC. Before the fight he had said he wanted Alex Pereira next and called Pereira's No. 3 heavyweight ranking "very strange". For now, getting the leg healed comes first.

Volkov, who turned 38 on fight night, has now won three in a row. In the Octagon he asked UFC CEO Dana White what more he has to do to get a title shot.