Dear friends,
Please take a moment to read this. It's important to me!
Regarding my last fight at UFC 168 and the year 2013 in general, I would like to explain what was going on behind the scenes. Ever since my UFC debut in 2012, I've been victim of a series of bad luck. It started late 2012. Broke my right hand 3x and had a surgery on it as well. I was training my striking with one hand. My lack of training on my wrestling and BJJ, due to broken hand, set me up for the fight with Dong Hyun Kim in March 2013. He fought great and was the better fighter that night. This isn't an attempt to take the shine off his victory away. However, I'd like to bring under your attention, why I couldn't perform at the best if my ability.
Then after that fight I started training the very next day. I was determined to fight back and win again. In July 2013 I was scheduled to fight Robbie Lawler, but 3 weeks into the fight, I injured my back. Also, I became sick at that time, for almost 4 months. Couldn't train the way I wanted to.
Late 2013 I flew back to South Florida to resume my trainings and get back in shape for the next fight at UFC 168. 6 weeks into the fight, I got sick for more than two weeks. In that periode I just tried to keep my weight low and kept training lightly. Then when I was healthy, 3 weeks into the fight I went hard in training because I had a lot to compensate and dislocated my right shoulder. 2 days later, dislocated my left shoulder as well. At that point all I could do was train my legs. I had a terrible time for two weeks with my shoulders taking pain killers every day and kept training. One week into the fight I took two cortisone shots in each shoulder and decided not to cancel my fight because a lot of Afghans, nationally and internationally had booked flights and had bought tickets to come support me.
Once the fight started, after a minute and a half my shoulders were shot, my lungs were burning. I kept fighting because giving up is no option. Especially when millions of little kids watch my fight in Afghanistan. No kid ever wants to see their hero give up. And when I fight, I fight to inspire and motivate my people. I may not always win, but I will always fight hard and not give up.
During this time frame of injuries, I also had some personal issues that affected my state of mind and I am going to take care of it very soon. I'll return a new Siyar Bahadurzada. Well trained and well conditioned! I'll take my time this time to train well and stay away from social media to dedicate my 100% to fighting.
Winning is great, but life is not always about winning, I consider myself lucky that my people get to see me fall time after time. I want them to see that I stand back up and fight back after everytime I fall, because I fight for what I believe. I fight for the unity of my nation. When I fight, Afghans world wide come together to watch my fights. Regardless of their ethnic groups, whether they're Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbak or Hazara, they unite and cheer for one person together. I want to be that reason to bring them together and unite them. I will set my life and my career as example for my people. We can't lose hope when we fall. We have to fight back and come back stronger. My motivation has gone through the roof for my next fight. Now i don't know what God's plans are for me and where life takes me from here, but I want my people inside and outside Afghanistan to fight for their lost moral and unite and form a solid and strong nation. War has kicked us down, but we are going to stand back up. We're Afghans! We rise above ourselves in any kind of competition. Win or lose, we do not quit. We're warriors!
Regards,
Siyar Bahadurzada, a son of Afghanistan.
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