Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has undergone surgery in a Chechen hospital after taking a blow in the boxing ring.
Kadyrov fractured a rib in two places during a routine training session.
"Many of you have written to me claiming that my opponents in the ring would not really strike me," he wrote on his Instagram page. "Now you can see that isn't the case."
The Chechen leader boasted that he'd chosen to have the procedure done in the regional capital of Grozny rather than travel abroad, heaping praise upon his medical team.
"I can say that our doctors really are the best skilled and the most experienced," he wrote. "We often invite scholars and practitioners from Japan, Germany, China, Israel, and elsewhere [to spend time in Chechnya]. One foreign doctor with more than 9,000 successful operations under his belt said that he couldn't dream of having such equipment or such skilled colleagues."
Kadyrov also urged his fellow Chechens to trust their doctors, claiming that "taking care of the body" was a duty under Islam.
Ramzan Kadyrov spars in the ring with his "little brother," Russian Special Forces officer Iznaur Musaev. "I won't accept anyone just going easy on me," he wrote.
Kadyrov came under heavy criticism in October for allowing his children to participate in a televised mixed martial arts (MMA) exhibition fights without protective gear.
Presidential spokesperson Dmitry
Peskov later confirmed that the televised event would be investigated
by the authorities after one of the fights ended
in a technical knockout.
"If it was on television,
and it is true that a child was knocked out, it is most definitely of
interest to the relevant supervisory authorities," he told
reporters.
Welcome to the Kadyrov Show: Read about the Chechen leader's Donald Trump-style reality television stunt.
