The Sleeping Bear: The Russians are Winning

Russian fighters are entering the top Mixed Martial Arts promotions in numbers and they are winning. The UFC and Bellator have seen a huge influx of great fighters from Russia over the past few years. Although most believe that the UFC is the only legitimate proving ground for Mixed Martial Arts, it is not the case. Bellator is becoming increasingly professional in its level of competition and is expanding quickly. When adding their current Russian roster the concept becomes even more interesting. Below is a list of current Russian UFC and Bellator fighters along with records in their respective promotions. 

UFC:

Khabib Nurmagomedov 6-0

Rustam Khabilov 3-0

Adlan Amagov 2-0

Mairbek Taisumov 1-1

Rashid Magomedov 1-0

Zubaira Tukhugov 1-0

Ali Bagautinov 3-0

Omari Akhmedov 1-1

Gaslan Umalatov 0-1

UFC Combined Record: 18-3

Bellator:

Alexander Volkov 5-1

Vitaly Minakov 5-0

Mikhail Zayats 3-2

Alexander Shlemenko 11-1

Andrey Koreshkov 7-1

Alexander Sarnavskiy 4-2

Frodo Khasbulaev 5-0

Shabulat Shamhalaev 3-1

Bellator Combined Record: 43-8

UFC and Bellator Combined Record: 61-11

Regardless of promotion the Russian fighters are winning. They are fighting often and most importantly always away from home. Winning six out of every seven fights as a group is interesting especially when taking into account they are always fighting across the world. Even though there are more Russians in Bellator with more fights the ratio of winning is almost identical to that of the fighters in the UFC. There will be more Russian champions in top promotions over the next few years because of numbers alone. 

Recent Russian UFC Signings

Alexandra Albu

Adam Khaliev

Ruslan Magomodev

Oleksiy Oliynyk

Alexander Yakolev

Milana Dudieva

Sultan Aliev

Russian fighters are awesome.  There used to be a lot of top-of-the-food-chain Russian fighters and I found it curious that for several years no new Russian talent seemed to be emerging onto the international (or really U.S.) scene.

I suspected that maybe M-1 Global was somehow keeping a grip on all the talent, but as Fedor's career ended so did M-1's relevance and ability to lock up all the Russian talent.  But I really don't know if that's the case or if it was other circumstances that led to the drought we were seeing for so long.

Most of them are great but not sure how many would be champions in the UFC.

* Edited at 05.11.2014, 4:14 PM ET *