TDT | Manama
Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Back at BRAVE CF 29, Hussein Ayyad took on Matis Zakharovs. It was a competitive matchup in every sense of the word on paper, but things went horribly wrong for the young prospect early in the first round. Ayyad threw a kick, and in the blink of an eye, his life changed forever.
Sadly, instead of allowing this to become the defining moment of his career, Hussein fought back and made sure it wouldn’t be the end of his story.
“Actually, it was a good experience in a way. I remember the moment it happened. I was following the game plan and things were going according to plan. I was throwing a few kicks, but , this was the last kick I should have thrown.”
“When I threw the kick, I heard something break. I knew something was breaking, but I didn’t know if it was from me or him. It feels like everything is in slow motion at this moment.”
“Then I looked down and it was my foot. I didn’t step on it, I just backed up a little bit, and he (Matis Zakharovs) didn’t even know it happened,” Ayyad added. . Ayyad, now 30, remembers that moment like it was yesterday.
“To be honest, I didn’t feel any pain. It didn’t hurt.” He added, “I was planning on not doing anything for at least six months, so I asked to have the surgery done that night. I told them to just do it to make the time go faster.”
“After the surgery, my knee and everything else was opened up, so this is where the pain starts. But the pain wasn’t in the same place as the injury. One time it was in my knee, then my foot, then my ankle. This is where the pain started. The pain lasted about three weeks. I didn’t sleep for two hours, maybe four hours at the most. Then, after they removed the stitches, I started training and kept going.”
Get ready for BRAVE Nation. Hussein Ayyad is ready to compete at an elite level like never before. Next month he plans to do it as part of BRAVE International Combat Week.