Taktarov is our legend, of which we should be proud. The first UFC champion and a great actor
Igor Nekrasov
27 July 2023, 10: 15 MSK
He had three fights a night and returned to the octagon after 15 years.
Oleg Taktarov, 55, who won the sixth UFC tournament in 1995, announced in mid-July that he was returning to the cage after a 15-year absence. The news of his upcoming fight against the equally legendary Jeff Monson literally thrilled the Russian martial arts world. But it turned out that not everything is so simple.
Oleg Taktarov
Photo: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
Initially, the fight according to MMA rules was supposed to take place on August 4. Due to the filming of Taktarov, the date was changed to August 10, and with it appeared a new opponent for the former winner of the UFC tournament. Judging by the poster of the Top Fight tournament, on August 10, Oleg Nikolaevich will not meet with Monson, but with the Serbian Adnan Alic.
“I don’t want to get into that, let the organizers decide when and with whom. I don’t care. My first session is on August 20. I am a lonely person, I need to entertain myself with something,” Ushatayka’s YouTube channel quotes Taktarov as saying.
According to the organizers of the league, the fight with Monson was broken due to the postponement of the original date, and on August 10, Taktarov will enter the cage with the little-known Serb Alic, with whom he will fight according to MMA rules. And they will try to organize a duel with Monson in the next tournament, which is scheduled to be held on September 22.
On the fight between Monson and Taktarov:
Taktarov returns. Our first UFC champion will beat a Russified deputy
Adnan is a 39-year-old Serbian athlete whose record, to put it mildly, is not impressive. Alic had 49 fights in professional mixed martial arts, winning only 15 of them. At the moment, the Serbian is in a series of six defeats in a row.
In this context, Oleg Taktarov’s achievements, of course, seem simply legendary. Taktarov made his MMA debut, when mixed martial arts was true old-school fights with no rules. In the UFC 6 tournament, in the final, he defeated the formidable Tank Abbott and became the first and only Russian who managed to win the organization’s tournament in the old format.
Taktarov is truly a legend of mixed martial arts. He fought three times at night, finished rivals who were much bigger than the Russian, professionally destroyed everyone on the ground. Success in MMA paved the way for Taktarov to the dream he had been burning since childhood: filming on film. Even in the last century, the Russian fighter starred in Hollywood films, and then began to conquer the domestic cinema.
After Taktarov last entered the octagon in 2007, he no longer performed professionally and was quite happy. But still, the trend that has developed recently, thanks to which boxing and MMA legends return to the cage or the ring at a respectable age, has reached Taktarov. At the age of 55, Oleg Nikolaevich is in very good physical shape, he points out that when he enters the ring, he has the feeling that he did not retire. Therefore, there will be many people who want to see the return of a true MMA legend, because Taktarov is the same crazy Russian in the good sense of the word, who was the first Russian to be afraid in the UFC.
Taktarov’s UFC performance:
Does Khamzat ask for two fights in one night? Taktarov passed three at once and became the UFC champion.
It is clear that Alic is an option for Taktarov to pass, although the Serbian is 16 years younger. But the return to the octagon after 15 years should be systematic. Combat and training are one thing, a competitive moment is another. Taktarov will pass to the Serbian, and only then will select a suitable opponent for status.
