“He saw I had blood and started pulling it out.” The fighter received a serious eye injury and a new UFC contract

World champion and master of world-class sports in kickboxing Vyacheslav Borshchev fought May 20 in Las Vegas against Hayisaer Maheshat (9-3 in MMA) in his 10th fight under MMA rules. Two fights before had gone badly for Borshchev – the basic kickboxer was exhausted from wrestling and clinches. Maheshat acted even harder and stung his opponent in the eyes. But this time Borshchev found something to answer, and forced him to pay with his nose: after several hard blows from Borshchev, Maheshat, firstly, lost by knockout, and secondly, he s is seen with a cut on the bridge of the nose, which has noticeably twisted.

Borshchev received congratulations from the UFC president and danced a mix of squat, lezginka and lower break.

– An interview came out with you, where you said that you removed a “piece of meat” from your eye. It’s been five days – have you been able to put it back?

“Maybe I expressed myself illiterate there. It turned out – when I was washing in the shower, I saw that I had blood. He started pulling it off, and it was bound by some sort of film in his eyes. In general, he did not withdraw in any way, and I began to literally withdraw him. You know, it’s kind of like scrambled eggs. Only this one was bloody. And I pulled it out of my eye. I think it’s still visible [показывает глазное яблоко с окровавленным белком].

– It seems to me that this is the best advertising for MMA – the children will go to the sections.

“So, and I talk about it all the time… I love sports, and I’m for sports, but I don’t promote professional sports. If you can avoid it, then avoid it.

– You said you were at the doctor’s when we started arranging an interview. What did the doctor say?

“It turned out that there was nothing to worry about, everything was fine. Today, for the second time, I was at the doctor’s, not in the emergency room, but in the usual one. She says that the swelling has not gone away yet. You have to wait for it to go away, because for now everything is doubled, if you look to the right. Left, down, forward – normal.

– How is insurance issued if the UFC pays you for medical expenses?

– In general, in that sense, everything is very cool with the UFC: even if you get injured in training, anything more than a thousand and a half dollars can be covered for you. Recently, for example, there were amounts, I received checks, but in the end they decided everything and paid. In terms of finances, everything is very well resolved.

In terms of quality, I have a lot of acquaintances in Sacramento, it is such a fighting city, and here I have already established contacts with familiar doctors. In Russia it is not mandatory, we have a network of sports dispensaries (thanks to the USSR, I haven’t been to ordinary doctors in Russia for a long time), then you go to a doctor you know, to who other fighters left.

And from the insurance company, you get a piece of paper, and you get a check on it, which is paid by UFC insurance. A somewhat confusing story. Meaning a doctor comes to me and then I show this piece of paper and say they will pay for it.

What happens when you can’t see out of one eye in battle? It seemed to me that it was more difficult to determine the distance, the angle changes and you do not understand how far the opponent is from you.

– To be honest, it’s hard to remember, there’s adrenaline in it. It is clear that the criticism is worse. I didn’t feel some kind of catastrophe. It just bothered me. And it bothered me even more when I opened my eyes: I opened it several times on autopilot and my head started spinning, the picture turned out to be distorted, it became scary and in somehow chattered. And so, it seems to me that it is quite possible to fight with one eye. It’s not a super-trauma. It seems to me that if you always live with one eye, you quickly get used to it.

– In combat, do you have time to consider an eye injury as a kind of everyday situation?

– Always different. This time I was so focused and ready that I even told the ref I just wanted to fight. In general, in battle, it happens that different thoughts come to your mind – such a mess happens. Especially in MMA, when they stop you, you keep with the fight. When I fought with Diakezi, I thought several times that I wanted to go home. I was just ashamed that nothing worked.

– How do you explain why Diakezi was so much better in the fight (Mark Diakezi beat Borshchev by judges’ decision, due to constant transfers to the ground on March 26, 2022. – “”).

“I think I was just worse as a wrestler. Oleg Taktarov said that I spent a lot of energy. He said I had given everything I could for every piece of protection. That is to say, it seemed to suck all my strength with every turn. And he recovered, and I got tired.

– And how is it that you and Oleg Taktarov reviewed your fight against Mark Diakezi?

– I asked him to conduct a master class, we met him, sat in a cafe, talked. He gave advice.

– Don’t you feel that now you are going to be scared for your eyes?

– Let’s see, we must first resume training, because at the moment I’m so tired that I just want to rest. I don’t think there will be anything like that. I had no injuries in my career – there was a rupture of the head and tail of the pancreas. What else should I be afraid of? ! I was once young and generally believed that it was completely normal to die in the ring. Now I have kids, an amazing fucking life, and I don’t want to die at all, but if you think about it all the time, it won’t get any easier. One day we will die anyway.

– How to get a pancreatic rupture?

– Max Smirnov gave it to me from a turntable! Somehow I even ended the fight, but went to the doctor. I rolled over because I vomited. In general, I never vomited after a fight, whatever the circumstances. And then the pain was excruciating. And I went to the doctor, they even let me go for the first time, and I already came with candy to say thank you. And they’re like, “Can we see you on the new device?” I say, “Let’s go.” How did they lift the porridge there! And I’m 21, I think they’re charging me?! He also stood up in response. They almost wanted to call the police there to arrest me. As a result, a hematoma formed, which saved me from leaking fluid from the pancreas. Looks like something was pumped to me once, and that’s it, I couldn’t remember.

– You had a brilliant fight, but you said you were very tired. When do you want to fight again?

– I want to please people with victories, and not just get into the cage. For that, I have to prepare myself very well. It was the last time I prepared very well, and I liked it a lot. Usually even my coach would annoy me saying that if we don’t have any injuries during training, then something is wrong. And now it’s different for me, I approach fights healthy, strong, I even like myself almost in the mirror. And I really liked that. I want to come back when I can stop all transfer attempts from my teammates so I can fight back and not worry about being transferred at all. Now I was sure he wouldn’t transfer me, I knew that myself, if anything, I could transfer him and keep him. Moreover, I just received a new contract – there are more serious and pleasant figures. In other words, I realized that the UFC was about to promote me, but the opponents will definitely prepare for me.

– Can we say that you have signed a new contract?

– They sent me conditions: figures and that it would be a contract for four fights. I liked the financial side. Good conditions, turned out a little more than I wanted.

– Did you meet Dana White after the fight – did you personally ask him for such a contract?

Honestly, I don’t even remember what we talked about. I was blind there, on emotions. It was just nice. I didn’t even know we were going to him, I thought during the interview. And then once we go into some kind of garage, and now. In fact, what I love about America now is that they don’t feed me fish here. They give me a cane. And Dana White gave me a fishing rod. What more can I ask of him, he gave me the opportunity to go out, beat some faces and earn money for it. What more can I ask of him?

You’re not in the top 15 lightweights. Do you think you can beat someone in the top 15 lightweights?

– As long as I’m an active fighter, I have to say I’m the best. Even if you or I don’t think so, I’ll say it anyway. I have to say it, otherwise I have no business in the UFC. But in terms of opponents, I completely rely on the manager and the matchmaker. I understand that it is in their interest to make such a fight so that it brings me a result. If it’s an achievable challenge, so much the better; if it’s unbearable, then I don’t belong in the UFC. Myself, I am only motivated by money, and nothing else. When I see that my wrestling is at such a level that I can beat a fighter of such a style as Khabib or Islam Makhachev, if I understand that I can resist their style, then I will pursue certain ambitions, but for now i am only interested in money.

– In the middleweight (up to 84 kg), Alex Pereira recently became the champion. Also a basic kickboxer, who seemed to be carefully driven in front of all the wrestlers. Don’t you feel he was saved from wrestling and transfers?

– It seems to me that these weight classes are trying to cool off that way. But in general, it is not clear why Khamzat has not yet destroyed everyone there. They are perfect for him.

– Don’t you feel like Pereira’s wrestling wasn’t even close to the level of a UFC champion just because you can’t learn it in such a short time?

– I have such a feeling when Adesanya knocks him down and holds him down for a while. Well, I don’t think so. I’m glad a pure kickboxer came along and had such a feat. But, to be honest, I really don’t like Pereira’s style, and secondly, I “flatter” him a little for Vakhitov. I believe Artem Vakhitov beat him twice and Artem only got one victory.

Live broadcasts of the Mixed Martial Arts tournaments can be seen on and Match! Fighter”, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.