Sunday 17 January 2016 16:49, UK
Johnny Nelson has sympathy for Vyacheslav Glazkov following the knee injury he suffered in Saturday's IBF heavyweight world title fight.
The Ukraine-born challenger was forced to quit just two rounds in against Charles Martin at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn after tearing his right anterior cruciate ligament.
It meant Martin follows Tyson Fury as the new IBF world heavyweight champion, with his promoter Lou DeBelle suggesting a unification fight with WBC belt holder and fellow-American Deontay Wilder, while Anthony Joshua is also in the mix.
What a way to go. He will have trained so hard and he'll be so frustrated because you can't do anything physical about it. Once it's gone, it's gone.
Nelson, who suffered the same injury twice in his career, says a lengthy lay-off is likely and means Glazkov will not get an immediate rematch.
"At the time, we saw it happen. The shot before put pressure on him and he clearly tore the ligament, not snapped it," he said.
"If he's snapped it, he'd never be able to put any pressure on it and he did walk out of the ring.
"But tearing it will have hurt more than snapping it. It sounded a bit gruesome but when those things happen, the adrenaline is the one thing that keeps you going.
"But what a way to go. He will have trained so hard and he'll be so frustrated because you can't do anything physical about it. Once it's gone, it's gone.
"He'll now be out of the ring for at least six to eight months. Then there is the confidence to start working on that knee, it's just frustration."
The irony did not escape Nelson, who was in the Sky Sports studio with world cruiserweight challenger Tony Bellew.
Nelson did the same knee injury twice, the second for a Ringside feature on Everton fan Bellew back in 2012 that included an ice bath.
"I did that before I was training to fight Enzo Maccarinelli so that could've happened in the ring against him, because it happened the week before it was supposed to happen," he said.
"The first time it happened, it popped there and the second time it happened, it was in training. I was putting pressure on it and that's what Glazkov did.
"His only chance was to try and put pressure on Martin, but that had gone.
"I think Martin tried to grab some of the glory off Glazkov's injury, but that's the way the world goes."
