As some may guess based on my name, I was born in Russia, a country with an incredibly rich, successful MMA tradition. It includes legends regarded among the greatest ever, Fedor Emelianenko and Khabib Nurmagomedov, several other outstanding young champions who have that potential, such as Petr Yan and Vadim Nemkov, and three highly successful domestic promotions in M-1 Global, Absolute Championship Akhmat and Fight Nights Global.
And who was the first Russian MMA star that preceded all of this? There were actually two: Oleg Taktarov debuted in the UFC in April of 1995 and won UFC 6 in mid-July, while Mikhail Ilyukhin triumphed at the inaugural IAFC tournament held in Moscow on July 1, 1995, winning five times in a single night.