The radiology report is in and it appears that heavyweight contender Vyacheslav “Czar” Glazkov suffered a more severe knee injury than originally believed in his bout with Charles Martin on Saturday night.
Dr. Steven Stoller, a, New Jersey Orthopedic Surgeon and who specializes in sports medicine, watched the Glazkov fight live last Saturday night. The doctor said that in the third round, while avoiding a punch, Glazkov’s right knee “pivot shifted,” which in layman’s terms is a partial dislocation of the knee (and is indicative of an ACL injury), when he went down the first time, which the referee ruled a slip. Glazkov continued fighting until presumably injuring his knee further when the bout was called off with 30 seconds remaining in the third round.
Dr. Stoller, with extensive experience treating professional and amateur boxers but who has not treated Glazkov, said, “Upon reviewing Glazkov’s MRI report, the injury was much more complex and serious than a straight forward ACL tear. Additional injuries consisted of a vertical tear of the medial meniscus, a grade II sprain of the medial collateral ligament as well as the lateral collateral ligament, with extensive injury to the posterior lateral complex of his knee, a large knee hemarthrosis, and he sustained bone contusions of the lateral tibial plateau and medial femoral condyle. I can’t imagine how Glazkov was able to walk out of the ring, let alone continue fighting.”
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Glazkov met with Dr. Benjamin Yukhanan in Florida yesterday. Glazkov said, “The doctor says my knee is much worse than we thought. It’s not just the ACL, it’s also the meniscus and my whole knee was dislocated. They can’t do surgery right away. I’m in a cast from the bottom to the top of my leg and I’ll be in the cast for a month. After they remove the cast, I will do physical therapy for around another month. After that, they can do the surgery. Basically, we are talking 10 months in a best case scenario, but could be a year to recover.”
Glazkov continued, “This injury was very unfortunate. I will take time to heal, but then I will be back better than ever!”
According to Glazkov’s manager, Egis Klimas, “Slava lost a fight without being hit. I do not think we will ask for rematch; when the time comes for Slava to step back into ring I do not believe Martin will still be a champion.”
“We will never know what would have happened had Czar not suffered this unfortunate accident during the fight,” said promoter Kathy Duva of Main Events. “The score was even on the judges’ cards when the fight was stopped due to Czar’s injury. The fact that he got up and continued fighting in such a debilitated state is a testament to his courage and his desire. His knee will be repaired by one of the very best surgeons in the country and we expect that, God willing, Glazkov will return to the ring even stronger than before when he is ready.”
