has any mma fighter traveled to russia to train?

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ironkhan57

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i hear about mma fighters traveling to brazil, thailand, and the netherlands to train and to better the ground and/or stand up, but what i have never heard of is a american or brazilian or dutch fighter traveling to russia to train, i mean russian's are good fighters they have good boxing and good wrestling. has any mma fighter thats not russian traveled to russia to train?
 
MMA is an American-based sport, I would be surprised if anyone who trains in Brazil or the U.S. worked with a Russian tem. They were very overlooked for sime time in general, I think. It was only the Emelianenkos on the big stage. Now things are changing and more and more Russian fighters climb the rankings, so it's absolutely possible that in the future we see more western dudes working with the Russian MMA gyms or learning Sambo (or wrestling with bears)
 
E Undead said:
MMA is an American-based sport, I would be surprised if anyone who trains in Brazil or the U.S. worked with a Russian tem. They were very overlooked for sime time in general, I think. It was only the Emelianenkos on the big stage. Now things are changing and more and more Russian fighters climb the rankings, so it's absolutely possible that in the future we see more western dudes working with the Russian MMA gyms or learning Sambo (or wrestling with bears)
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russians are good street fighters also, yet they were overlooked after i saw videos on youtube of russians fighting, they're crazy, and my muay thai instructor told me about this gym near where i live where their are russian mma fighters and their really good, i always knew russians were good fighters, but the fact that they're not as big as american based mma means that mma in their country hasn't been around as long as mma in america.
 
Yes you would learn some good stuff if you traveled to Russia (Sambo)
but, i think most would say it is comparable to training with some high level wrestling/mma programs in the States.

now going to Thailand is also far and expensive (the flight) but its easier because its set up as a tourist attraction, you have many translators available. There is also some prestige, to be training at the home of Muay Thai. (Also not sure if you still can, but you fight in the stadium after training is complete?)

same thing would be true for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Tourist attraction, home of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Compete at Mundials/Pan Ams...

but with so many great fighters coming out of Russia area (including Dagestan, Chechnya etc..) I could see it becoming a MMA hotbed. Would just take someone with money to set it up.
 
Given the number of mma fighters world wide, I would say 'yes' to your question.
 
E Undead said:
MMA is an American-based sport, I would be surprised if anyone who trains in Brazil or the U.S. worked with a Russian tem. They were very overlooked for sime time in general, I think. It was only the Emelianenkos on the big stage. Now things are changing and more and more Russian fighters climb the rankings, so it's absolutely possible that in the future we see more western dudes working with the Russian MMA gyms or learning Sambo (or wrestling with bears)
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It wasn't really a matter of overlooking them.

In the early days you had Oleg Taktarov, Vovchanchyn, Amar Suloev, Andrei Semenov, Kopylov, Volk Han etc. There were lots in Rings, and Pride had several. The Russians preferred to fight in Japan, it was closer for them.

Once UFC started to get popular they wanted American champs so they stopped signing Russian prospects. JMMA petered out, and M-1 grew so the Russians stayed in Russia. UFC did try to sign Fedor and Sergei but things didn't work out, so it's not like they hate Russians, but they only wanted the really marketable ones, that could potentially threaten their success.

After Bellator started bringing in Dagestani's UFC took note, and started signing the Russian and Dagestani prospects, mostly just to keep them out of Bellator. At least now they're getting a chance.
 
Alexander Gustafsson was in Chechnya and trained wrestling before the Cormier fight
 
Vinny M was invited to go train with Fedor, refused saying essentially there is nothing Big E could teach him and it's been downhill ever since.
 
Well, Rocky Balboa technically used mixed martial arts in Rocky 5.
 
I returned back home from Moscow yesterday.. On the road to the aiport by taxi I saw mass street fight near some clubs early in the morning. It was weird to see, to say the least. Guys were punching each other with variety of strikes - kicks, punches, clinch game..

Life in Russia is tough. :)
 
Rocky did to train for the Drago fight.
 
I knew some Brit MMA "semi-pro" guys that trained in Belarus like 12-14 years ago. Mainly wrestling, but they at least visited a Kickboxing gym. They were impressed.

Cool thing is that they trained in the national team's wrestling rooms. Three huge halls, each dedictad to an style (Freestyle, greco and sambo). At the time, only a few of their wrestlers didn't need a daytime job, so one of the wrestles was contracted as a chaffeur, but ended up giving them high quality privates instead. Fuck me if I remember the names of the wrestlers though.
 
I have traveled to Russia several times and always train, I'm from Volgograd but have lived in The USA since age 5
 
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Guys, this is an old post, but I wanted to revive it as I think it's really worth going to Russia for MMA training. As I am doing combat sambo (which is basically mma), I was looking at some of the options where I could go for a few weeks during summer just to train the whole time I am there from early in the morning until night every day during the stay. It will be different for people in the US, but if you are around Europe/Asia, then you should definitely go to Russia.
The three destinations I had in mind were Netherlands (because of all the kickboxing gyms), Thailand (obviously), and Russia. The gyms in Netherlands are cheap and the flight is cheap, but accommodation and living is expensive. Then, for Thailand the plane ticket by itself is like 500 bucks which is a no-no. With Russia, though, flying is cheap, gyms are cheap and accommodation is cheap. Here is my rough estimate for 3 weeks that I planned for myself around May 2019
-Plane ticket from Turkey to Russia and back: 250 bucks
-Accomodation: a private room from AIRBNB: about 15 bucks per night - 315 dollars
-Training: I am not sure but no more than 100 dollars
-Food: No more than 300 dollars
______________________________________________
that is roughly 950 dollars for 21 days

Ukraine will also cost around the same but Russia has much better training.
 
Fujita & Otsuka did train with Karelin at one point, but I dont know if it was in Russia or Japan.
 
Russian people (internet brides aside) are not really into selling themselves shamelessly for an easy buck...like Asian, American and Brazilian people do..so even if Russia were #1 at MMA they just wouldn't be able to sell their services..

The best designer gear (PEDS) is already in the U.S.A and most of the big promotions are there too, plus you need English to get yourself a better MMA deal career wise.. so its probably the best place to "Train"
 
gono btw said:
Fujita & Otsuka did train with Karelin at one point, but I dont know if it was in Russia or Japan.
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What about that gym that could never win a fight ? Absolute SK or something like that
 
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