Los Angeles — Muin Gafurov was sporting a bandaged right leg following a three-round decision win over Rinya Nakamura at UFC 311 on Saturday.
The win saw Gafurov look the best he has since arriving in the UFC, while becoming the first man to defeat Japan’s Nakamura as a pro.
Addressing the injury, “I feel it is great. I do a little bit more camp, training hard, to push myself for this fight so hard. Inside the camp, I had a little bit [of] an injury, I take an injury. After this, my injury, I put ice,” said Gafurov, forgoing a translator backstage at the Intuit Dome following the bout.
Yet while the ONE Championship vet had an injury coming in, needing to ice the knee was due to what transpired in the cage on Saturday. “Injury in my knee is now,” clarified Gafurov, saying he hurt it on a jumping knee to Nakamura’s head.
Gafurov also shed some light into what Syndicate MMA coach John Wood told him before the bout. “Before the fight I was training with coach John Wood, he told me about my striking, my wrestling. He told me everything is good, don’t worry.”
Perhaps the biggest surprise in the fight came from Nakamura, not Muin Gafurov. Mainly, it was Nakamura’s lack of wrestling. The Japanese bantamweight is a standout wrestler, after all. That said, Gafurov wasn’t concerned either way.
“Everybody knows Merab [Dvalishvili], Merab is champ. I trained with him four months, not one month. I trained with him four months, I put my camp with him. I defended Merab’s takedowns. In my weight, bantamweight, nobody [can] do takedowns [on me].”
Nakamura locked up a guillotine choke at one point during the fight, but Gafurov was never concerned. “No, nothing. I ask him ‘let’s go, do you like guillotines? Let’s go, push.'” After that, Gafurov gestured to the ref, and to the TV cameras, giving a thumbs up, he added.
Watch the full UFC 311 post-fight appearance by Muin Gafurov above.