Ilya Grad om Northcutt-kritiken: "Jag kanske inte skulle ha varit så hård"

När Sage Northcutts coach och tillika pappa lade sig i sparringpasset ventilerade Ilya Grad sin frustration via sociala medier. Han står fortfarande fast vid sin kritik, men beklagar att Sage Northcutt drabbades av det.

Enligt Ilya Grad (35-13 thaiboxning) saboterade Sage Northcutts (7-1) pappa deras sparringpass. Nortcutts pappa svarade att Grad ljög.

I en intervju med MMA Fighting förklarar Grad sin version igen.

”From the start, I was told I shouldn’t do this, I shouldn’t do that. I know he has a big fight coming up. For me, I was going very light. I just wanted to him to get some good work going on. You start very light, you start very easy. You work defensively and you work through your defense.

We were working very nice, very controlled. I was talking in between, telling him what was doing well, what he should feint here, work here. We had a great sparring session, to be honest.”

Ilya Grad och Sage Northcutt efter den omtalade sparringsessionen. Foto: Ilya Grad

Grad förtydligar att hans kritik inte riktar sig mot Sage Northcutt, problemet är enbart hans far.

”For me, it was upsetting for many reasons. He was disrespectful to us. And it was a shame that Sage couldn’t get his training in. That’s why I decided to comment the way that I did.

It’s too bad it went out that way because Sage is a great kid. He really is. So, it was absolutely not about him. It was about his training situation. Hopefully, it’s a wake-up call.”

I efterhand tycker Grad att det är olyckligt att det blev så mycket negativ uppmärksamhet som riktades mot Sage, men han står ändå för sin kritik.

”Looking back, maybe I shouldn’t have used such harsh words. Maybe I would mitigate my speech because Sage is a great kid. I’m sure this is causing him some distress and I really didn’t want to do that. So, I’d probably choose nicer words, but I’d probably say something, anyways.”

Foto: Mazdak Cavian