When celebrated coach Vladimir Osiya was arrested on suspicion of organizing a contract killing last week, local fighters and MMA promoters spoke out in support of the detained trainer. However, several fighters have also revealed that the news was “not surprising.”
Russian welterweight Artem ‘Lionheart’ Tarasov spoke openly about Osiya’s detention and how it is an example of the criminal network present in the Russian combat sports landscape.
“Vladimir Osiya has a lot of champion athletes, the most famous of whom is Magomed Ismailov,” Tarasov told ren.tv. “Osiya trained a lot of people as a combat sambo trainer, and he moved to the MMA world with Ismailov.