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Fighters From Russia
MMA in Russia - indeed, martial arts in Russia - begins and ends with a single man, the great Russian champion and "Last Emperor," Fedor Emelianenko. Emelianenko, the long-reigning Pride FC and WAMMA Heavyweight Champion, embodies much of what is admired in Russian fighters. He is stoic and impassive when others are fraught with nerves; he is furious, but tactical; like Russia's legendary Greco-Roman wrestling great, Alexander Karelin, Emelianenko fought without a loss in international competition for over a decade; and, like Karelin, Emelianenko attributes his success to simplicity and naturalism in his training methods. His long sessions of outdoor running in the summer heat and winter cold reflect the rugged Russian national demeanor, making it little surprise he is embraced as a hero by the Russian people. Russia's current Prime Minister and longtime President, Vladimir Putin, attended Emelianenko's April 14, 2007 BodogFight contest against Matt Lindland in St. Petersburg, Russia, which Emelianenko won by first round submission.
Putin, in turn, himself reflects the depth and breadth of martial arts acculturation in the vast Russian state, having begun his martial arts training in the Soviet discipline of Combat Sambo at age fourteen. Putin currently holds a 6th dan red-and-white belt in Judo. He has trained regularly through his adult life, and his belt is far from ornamental.
It comes as little surprise that Russians outside of Emelianenko have also met with great MMA success. "The Russian Bear" Oleg Taktarov was the first fighter of Russian descent to meet with significant success in the UFC, and a true trailblazer of the sport. He defeated early legends including "Tank" Abbott and Marco Ruas in the 1990s before moving on to a successful Hollywood acting career. Sergei Kharitonov and Fedor Emelianenko's brother, Aleksander Emelianenko, also had outstanding careers in Pride, where both were known to prefer striking but also showed plenty of ground prowess when the circumstances dictated it. Both men remain young enough to return to championship form.
Russian fighters tend to be extremely tough (perhaps owing to frequent early military training), well-conditioned, experienced in both boxing and ground-fighting (usually Sambo or Judo, or a combination thereof), and tactical. They have traditionally fought at their natural weight as opposed to employing pre-fight weight-cutting, but as MMA modernizes and expands in the former Soviet state, and that final piece of the puzzle settles into place, bigger and stronger Russian fighters are sure to contend for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.
