“No one will take care of my sick son.” Salikhov is 40 years old and has the motivation to fight in the UFC
July 13, 2024, 16:15 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
The King of Kung Fu is ready to get back to normal.
On the evening of July 14, the next UFC tournament will be held in Denver, and the attention of most Russian fans will be focused on the main event of the evening: Muslim Salikhov will meet with Argentine Santiago Ponzinibbio.
Main events of the upcoming tournament:
Live
UFC on ESPN 59: Salikhov attempts to snap his losing streak, Bandit Rose is back in the cage. LIVE
Salikhov is one of those fighters who came to the best MMA promotion in the world with a very serious experience. Perhaps Muslim is one of the most unusual Dagestanis who entered the UFC. If everyone is used to seeing fighters from this region with a powerful wrestling base, Salikhov followed a different path and began practicing martial arts as a child. In particular, Wushu Sanda. And he studied at the “Five Sides of the World” school, where Zabit Magomedsharipov came from.
Salikhov gained fame already in China, where he became a star. There he became one of the most titled representatives of Wushu Sanda, winning the world championship five times. He also won the Sanda Wang tournament, which earned him the title of King of Kung Fu. Yes, this is not just a nickname for Muslims, but a well-deserved title. And with such a track record, Salikhov soon entered MMA. He was then 27 years old. And he came to the UFC in 2017, when he turned 33.
Salikhov Muslim
Photo: Chris Unger/Getty Images
The King of Kung Fu is now 40 years old and he is not going to end his career: “I have a new contract, and it is for three more fights.”
At the same time, it cannot be said that the last few years have been successful for Muslim. In two years he fought four fights and was defeated in three of them. Relatively recently, in February, he was knocked out by Randy Brown, and before that he lost by decision to the strong and tough Nicholas Dalby. After two defeats in a row, many began to write that it was time for Salikhov to finish, but he spoke out on social networks: “The path of a warrior is the path of victories and defeats! There is no other option here. To all those who say that it is time to quit, I want to say: no one but me will take care of me, my family and my sick son. My friends, thank you for the advice, but I will continue to do what I know how to do. “I want to thank UFC, Sean Shelby and manager Ali Abdel-Aziz for the opportunity to perform and win at the highest level.”
Even before the new fight with Ponzinibbio, Salikhov opened up a bit on the subject of his son’s illness and noted that everything was going well: “Now everything is fine, in terms of health everything is fine, he still doesn’t sleep at night and he doesn’t talk yet. There are still problems. Since he was two years old, I took him to different hospitals. Now he doesn’t need hospitals or doctors, he just needs speech therapists and to correct some neurological problems. Development has stopped, we need to restore it. No, not the heart. Consider that everything is fine now.”
Muslim’s previous fight was unsuccessful:
Courage played a cruel joke on Salikhov. The veteran missed a dirty move and was knocked out
Salikhov has excellent motivation to continue fighting. Moreover, despite his age, he always performs in a very bright style, his fights are interesting to watch. In addition, Muslim claims that before the last fights he experienced health problems and this affected his performances. On the evening of July 14 there will be an excellent opportunity to prove it.
And as a human being, I really want Muslim to get back on the winning path and for his son to finally recover.
