Lohoré: I could have beaten Kozma, but I broke my knuckle in the first minute. Even with the injury he didn’t threaten me, I want a rematch!

David Kozma beat you on points. How do you feel shortly after the defeat?

I feel gutted. A lot of things went wrong. It was a fight I could have definitely won.

You had to go to the hospital after the fight because of your injured hand. What’s your condition and what’s wrong with your arm?

Yeah, I had to get my hand checked out right after the loss. I have a broken knuckle on my index finger. It happened during the first exchange in the first minute of the game. It made it impossible to use my left hand. But I still tried to do something about the match.

How long a break are you going to have because of the injury?

The doctors told me that my hand will take six to eight weeks to heal, so I’m counting on two months to get back together.

How much did the injury actually affect your performance?

I got hurt trying to get a lift when Kozma was trying to get me to the ground. It was something we’ve been working on all training camp. The fracture affected everything after that. I couldn’t even use my arm to get up off the ground and I couldn’t even defend my punches properly.

You said before the fight that you were counting on Kozma wanting to take you to the ground. You prepared for that scenario. Was David so good that you couldn’t defend yourself, or was the injury primarily to blame?

He wasn’t doing anything we weren’t preparing for. His takedowns, his control, his movement, his strikes. I just wasn’t in good enough health to do anything more than finish the fight with one hand.

Of course, after seeing the fight over and over again a few times, I know I could have done something better. But I did what I could do. I hid the pain and the injury very well. Without my arm, everything changed physically and mentally, the body set itself into survival mode and that’s a completely different state of being.

I think everyone has a chance to win it. It all depends on what happens on game day. I’m the perfect example. In full form, Kozma would never be able to control me on the ground so easily. If you ask him, I guarantee he’ll tell you it was easy to keep me down.

Did you take any positives from the fight?

Absolutely. I can say that my conditioning and defense were great, as I was able to finish the whole fight with my injury without Kozma coming close to a submission or knockout.

How did you enjoy the atmosphere at the tournament? Even though the hall was cheering for Kozma, of course.

I love the atmosphere. I’ve been fighting in the Czech Republic for over a year now and the fans are fantastic. Of course they support their last representative in the pyramid, that was no surprise. It didn’t affect me in any way. I’ve been in a similar position many times in my career.

What are your next plans? Do you have a specific opponent in mind? Will we see you in Manchester?

My immediate plans are to get fully recovered and then get in shape to fight in November, maybe in Manchester, or even earlier if the injury heals better.

We haven’t thought about an opponent for the next fight yet, but it could easily be any of the Gamechanger guys. Why not? Or just anyone, I don’t really care. Right now I’m just focusing on getting my arm back and making it stronger than before.

And of course I want a rematch with Kozma!

Source:: Ruik