This Friday, Mickaël Groguhe must have woken up with a hell of a headache and not only because of the high-kick his opponent sent him… The night before, the French heavyweight was in fact, despite himself, the laughing stock of the PFL Paris: long before the controversy of the main event, the video of his defeat against Islem Masraf made the rounds on social networks.
It must be said that the duration of the fight is striking: the French heavyweight was knocked out in just 12 seconds, displaying astonishing casualness, without ever really keeping his guard up.
Aware of the image sent by this fiasco, he finally spoke on his social networks on Friday to explain his attitude.
Groghue's message after his nonchalant attitude yesterday, a big strength of his own, he admits his mistake and not everyone would do that.
pic.twitter.com/dbsFSJ9zgw
— ARENA (@MMArena_) March 8, 2024
“I would like to apologize for my behavior on Thursday,” the fighter immediately introduced.
I'm used to being nonchalant, it's true, but here I was in the extreme.
I acted too smart, I underestimated him and I got the other side of the coin right away.
I want to apologize to everyone who supports me, who trains me, who knows me as a fighter.
Yesterday I did shit.
»
A “boxing style” that didn’t pay off
Groguhe is indeed accustomed to the fact: in his previous fights, even victorious, he often kept his hands low, relying more on the strength of his strikes than on his defense... An attitude that paid off, since he had three victories of rank.
But at the Accor Arena, this time he was caught at his own game.
ISLEM MASRAF WITH THE HEAVYWEIGHT HEADKICK KO!!!#PFLParis MAIN CARD 2:30pm ET
🇺🇸 https://t.co/bmwwnfab20 pic.twitter.com/5YpUPtnNTV
— PFL (@PFLMMA) March 7, 2024
Visibly marked, the Frenchman still wanted to indicate that he wanted to return to the cage soon, to erase this bad memory.
“I'm going to go straight back to the coals, come back stronger, I'm going to continue to knock out, I'm going to continue to fight, I'm going to change my behavior,” he assured, before sending “strength” to his executioner from the PFL.
I would like to come back to the attitude of my opponent, know that it is his style of boxing and that he did not show any disrespect towards me, just look at his previous fights.
He has always behaved like this and it has always worked except that yesterday our game plan was👌 https://t.co/x8zTn1IBNd
— Islem Lightning (@IslemLightning) March 8, 2024
Winner without straining too much this Thursday, Masraf was also very fair on social networks after the fight, defending Groguhe's attitude.
“Know that this is his style of boxing, and he has not had any disrespect towards me, just look at his previous fights.
He has always behaved like this and it has always worked except that yesterday our game plan was clean.
»