Russian mixed martial artist Abubakar Nurmagomedov competes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, having previously been named a Russian national combat sambo champion.

Nurmagomedov comes from the Dagestan area of Russia, renowned for producing some of the world’s best combat fighters. He trained in freestyle wrestling during his time in school, going on to train in combat sambo and becoming Russian national combat sambo champion. In 2011 he launched his professional mixed martial arts career, winning his debut fight and amassing an eight fight win streak in his first series of bouts. In 2015 Nurmagomedov signed with the World Series of Fighting, winning all five of his matches with the promotion before moving to compete with the Professional Fighters League. He fought in the PFL Welterweight Grand Prix but left the promotion the following year to join the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Nurmagomedov won his most recent fight at the start of 2021 but unfortunately had to withdraw from a scheduled bout due to injury.

Alongside his MMA career, Nurmagomedov has continued to compete in sambo combat, and in 2014 won a bronze medal at the Combat Sambo World Championships. He has an impressive track record of 17 wins out of 20 fights and is now one of the best known competitors on the circuit, with over 800k followers on his Instagram page. Fans are excited to see what this athlete does next, and he now has admirers all over the world.