It is never good to see an arm at a 90 degree angle.
This bears repeating: 2021 has not been kind to limbs. And today, we bring you another example of why that statement continues to ring true.
On Saturday night, Absolute Championship Akhmat (ACA) held ACA: Young Eagles 19, where Rustambek Nurzhanov met Abdul-Malik Saidulaev in a featherweight fight. Both men took to the center of the cage and started exchanging strikes before Saidulaev pressed forward and backed Nurzhanov up towards the cage. Nurzhanov would shoot in for a takedown and brought Saidulaev to the ground with a throw. He quickly moved into full mount without much resistance from Saidulaev, but there was a reason for that.
Just as Nurzhanov was about to go to work on the ground, he noticed the arm of Saidulaev, which was now bent at a 90 degree angle and pointed outward. You know. The way an arm probably should not be pointed. Nurzhanov got off of Saidulaev in a state of shock as the referee and cageside doctor came in to tend to the injured fighter, who was now screaming in pain.
The broadcast provided replays of the very moment the arm was injured from multiple angles and you can see why it happened. Rather than brace for the takedown, Saidulaev tried to stop it and posted his arm on the mat right as they landed.
You can watch the full fight below, brought to you by the official YouTube channel of ACA MMA. Or, if you are like me and want to get straight to the gruesome stuff, then go ahead and skip to the 2:11 mark of the video.
Warning: The video below is graphic. Please proceed with caution.
No updates have been given on Saidulaev, so we are unsure if his arm was completely broken or dislocated. Up until the fight with Nurzhanov, the Russian fighter was previously undefeated with an overall professional record of 9-0.