At the end of last year, an interesting statistic appeared on the social networks of the famous journalist Aaron Bronsteter: fighters with “Magomed” in their first or last name go to the UFC with a record of 52-8-1 (this is more than 85% of victories). The vast majority, of course, represents Dagestan.
What do fans suggest a Russian wrestler do most often, and not only, after a loss? That’s right, go to the training camp in Dagestan. Even Khabib Nurmagomedov himself invited the French Cyril Gan to start the fight. Why is Dagestan cited so much? One phrase from the lightweight champion Islam Makhachev is enough: “In some countries, children play football, in Dagestan we fight.”
Defeat the representative of this republic = write a line on the resume. It is noteworthy that five representatives of the UFC have two victories at once. The most recent example is the loquacious American Sean Strickland. The eccentricities on his part have been full of late. Either he decides to “check” Alex Pereira’s position, or he regrets in the media that Russia has not dropped a bomb on the United States.
Sean Strickland
Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
But since the end of 2022, there have been no complaints against Sean in sporting terms. He was passed two prospectuses, for some reason he agreed to this. Many fans sprained their fingers on their heads, but Strickland was unscathed. Nassurdin Imavov lost via unanimous decision and Abusupyan Magomedov did not survive the second round at all.
Thus, the American collected the scalps of two Dagestanis in six months. Of course, you can say in the style of Winnie the Pooh that these are “wrong bees”, that is, Dagestan. After all, Imavov represents France and Magomedov represents Germany. But the fact remains. Sean himself, by the way, quotes a lot from the Dagestan fighters.
“How many American champions are there now? We constantly see these foreigners who seem to be fighting for their lives. We have Dagestanis who fight like fucking bears. They don’t give a damn about social injustice,” Sean said in late 2022.
And who else defeated the Dagestanis twice?
Adrian Martin. It was this Brazilian who inflicted the only defeat in his career on Islam Makhachev. And six months earlier, he faced another strong Dagestani – Rustam Khabilov.
How Makhachev suffered the only loss in his career:
“Well, don’t fall!” Makhachev lost by terrifying knockout
Like Makhachev, Magomed Ankalaev only lost once. It was tried by Paul Craig, who in the last second of the fight applied a choke. For the Russian, this was his UFC debut. The Scotsman will also later take over from Gadzhimurad Antigulov.
Antigulov also suffered from Poland’s Michal Olekseychuk, whose record includes a win over Shamil Gamzatov.
The fifth member of the elite club is Eliseu Zaleski dos Santos, who defeated Abubakar Nurmagomedov and Omari Akhmedov.
In the summer, the attention of Dagestan, and indeed all of Russia, will be fixed on Umar Nurmagomedov, who can fly into the top 5 bantamweight. To do this, he needs to face the American Cory Sandhagen. He did a Strickland-esque act and took the fight to a prospect, also from Dagestan. Why did he do it?
“I’m not trying to become a world champion by avoiding the best in the world. So the fight with Umar is a big challenge, I accept it. Reason number two? Because I’m a beast, that’s why!” – Corey released after the announcement of the fight.
Will Umar take the sterling title?
It’s time for Sterling to move on to another division. Nurmagomedov is already very close
He also spoke about the aura of the Dagestan fighters.
“They are considered superhuman. But this is a false statement. They’re just doing things in the Octagon that the rest of us aren’t used to yet. I have a decent amount of training partners from this part of the world who will also help me get ready for the fight,” Corey said in an interview with ESPN.
“Give a couple of years, and the natives of the republic will claim belts in all weights. The fact that 15 people are now signed to the UFC is a drop in the bucket. There will be more, much more,” noted promoter Kamil Hajiyev said in 2014.
Somewhere the prediction came true, somewhere not. Magomed Ankalaev was close to the title, but with his non-media nature, one must become an iron champion, and not a thin one, which was not allowed in the UFC. He is a bit tight with the Dagestanis only at featherweights (Movsar Evloev-Ingush) and heavyweights (Sergey Pavlovich, Alexander Volkov).
It is hardly possible to speak of any pattern in the cases with the Dagestanis. The more fights, the more losses, the more important the winning percentage. And there will always be losses, that’s life.
