The finals of Russia’s national amateur MMA championships for senior athletes recently concluded in Moscow, across two days of competition, with gold and silver medalists now qualified for the national team dispatched to IMMAF-WMMAA international championships in the coming months.
The landmark contest showcased the nation’s most prominent up and coming talent and was attended by some of Russia’s leading MMA professionals and international sport stars, such as heavyweight MMA icon Fedor Emelianenko and former heavyweight boxing world champion, Nioklai Valuev.
Arguably the most impressive domestic level competition in the world of amateur MMA, the event served as a major test for Russia’s 2018 IMMAF-WMMAA world champions, who were awarded automatic qualification to the 2019 national championships finals.
As the world’s most extensive domestic circuit for amateur MMA, the regulated competition platform spans the entire nation and draws on thousands of athletes, from Moscow to Siberia, where challengers compete to advance through their local city, regional and federal championships in order to reach the coveted finals.
The Russian MMA Union estimates twenty-thousand (20,000) active amateur MMA athletes spanning age levels from cadet to senior. As a result, the talent pool is vast and has produced no shortage of established veterans, many of who now feature as professionals in the UFC and under the banner of other standout promotions such as Bellator, PFL and M-1.
In 2018, Russia produced a combined national team for the first time under both the Russian MMA Union and Russian MMA Federation, with record breaking success.
2018 men’s flyweight world champion, Ruslan Satiev, cemented himself as Russia’s number-one senior competitor at 125lbs, alongside his 2018 national team mate and IMMAF-WMMAA World Championships gold medalist, Islam Bagomedov, who claimed the Russian MMA Union’s national crown at 170lbs.
Young light-heavyweight prospect Igor Glazkov competed against his countrymen at the senior level, having won the junior IMMAF-WMMAA world title (for athletes age 18-20) in 2018. Glazkov achieved silver at the national finals while senior 205lb world champion Magomed Shakhrudinov bested him to take the gold medal.
The event further contributed to the history of Russian MMA with the first ever women’s national championships, announced by Russian MMA Union president Radmir Gabdullinearlier this year. The championship’s highly contested debut provided a gateway for female talent to achieve experience and follow in the pioneering footsteps of women such as Svetlana Kotova and Polina Kobzeva, who both represented Russia and earned medals at the IMMAF-WMMAA World Championships in 2018.
