MMA fans are concerned Grigoriy Ponomarev’s career is over after he broke his leg during Friday night's ACA 161 event in Moscow.
Ponomarev's heavyweight clash with Mukhamad Vakhaev served as the evening's co-main event but the fight barely got going before it was called off.
The 28-year-old pinned Vakhaev against the cage at the beginning of the fight before disaster struck when he dropped down and tried to take his opponent to the floor.
After Ponomarev’s grappling attempt was shrugged off, he stumbled to one side and his leg buckled under his weight causing it to twist in an unnatural way.
It quickly became clear that he had suffered a horrific broken leg but Vakhaev didn’t seem to realise and continued to throw punches until the referee pulled him away.
The 33-year-old celebrated booking his place in the tournament semi-finals by performing a backflip as slow-motion replays of the incident were played back.
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Meanwhile, Ponomarev was rolling around the floor in agony after suffering what some MMA fans consider to be the worst injury the sport had ever seen.
One wrote: "One of the worst injuries I’ve seen in MMA."
A second tweeted: "That’s brutal, I can’t imagine the pain he’s in!"
Someone else said: “Oh God. It never gets easier to see flapping limbs.”
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Another compared it to Anderson Silva breaking his leg against Chris Weidman, writing: "This is worse than the Silva one however I cringed more at the Silva one."
Other MMA fans were angry about the fact Vakhaev continued to punch Ponomarev before celebrating when their fight was called off after 40 seconds.
One person tweeted: "Bro no need for the backflip when your opponent is writhing in agony with a broken leg.”
While a second added: "2 hits while the ref was on him, that's poor."
Another asked: “Am I the only one who thinks the other guy was aware of the ref and the injury but purposely kept hitting him?”
Vakhaev’s win improved his professional MMA record to 12-6-1.
There’s currently no medical update on Ponomarev who fell to 6-3.
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