- Joined
- May 14, 2017
- Messages
- 3,633
- Reaction score
- 6,532
Some of you guys probably remember Mairbek Taisumov, the Austrian resident who started his career with fighting in various European countries. His first ever fight in Russia was the 14th MMA fight, despite being born in Chechnya. After some succesful years with the organization M-1, the UFC signed him and tried several times to get him to the US, and every time they thought there would be ways to solve this. So they booked him three times on US soil. Every single time he had to be withdrawn in the end, close to the events too, because they weren't able to help him in the process of getting a visa. Which they had been certain of being capable of, to mediate and use the economic angle, take full responsibility of monitoring the fighter during each minute of the visit etc.
In the UFC he still delivered when fighting elsewhere in the world. But despite getting three POTN bonuses in a row, he only got to take on a Bellator-level fighter for his next fight, as it would take place in Moscow. This is what Mairbek said:
“It always comes back to the visa excuses, and my lawyers kept telling me ‘Hey, Beckan, two more weeks and we’ll get the visa’, but I am here still waiting. They have promised me they will get this visa, but nothing is happening. I don’t know what the problem is. I am not a criminal, I haven’t done anything wrong. I’m just a sportsman. I’ve put all of my life into the sport and because of a piece of paper I cannot fight with the best guys in the best promotion. That’s the situation, but I hope very soon I will get this visa. I haven’t lost hope."
Taisumov believed that a political issue was standing in the way of him competing in the U.S.
“It’s just a political thing, but I don’t know why they choose to punish me. I’m not the only one, they don’t get [visas] for many fighters. Politics are for politicians, I don’t know why we are affected."
Getting some fighters to risk their ranking spot can be difficult, ‘Beckan’ believed that asking top-tier opponents to come to Europe to compete had made things even more difficult:
“I really hope that someday I could be given a title shot, but the top 10 guys don’t want to fight outside of America. They’re just fighting in America, so I don’t know what to do. If you want to fight for the title you have to fight some of the top guys. They want to fight at home, they always tell me ‘Come over here and fight me!’, I swear to God, I don’t care where I fight. I’ll fight anyone, any time, anywhere. All these guys who are saying ‘If you want to fight you should come to America’, they 100 percent know that I have no visa to fight over there.”
As the situation never got solved, Mairbek decided to instead become a citizen of Morocco as they could aid in getting a visa there. In return he was willing to represent their country and share his positive views about life there on social media. And yet as the next year came, he was bound to fight in Abu Dhabi. At least against an upcoming guy who had made a name for himself in Carlos Diego Ferreira, but this was the last fight of his contract so win or lose he would have split. He gave up.
I feel like the same thing probably has happened again with Khamzat Chimaev. He started to represent and post about UAE when he understood that he'd never get a Swedish citizenship and only would remain a resident there. Didn't they promise him the same thing as Morocco, that they would be able to aid him in finalizing a visa? And once again the UFC likely thought it would be able to solve, with their good relationship with the UAE and all. Then for whatever reason it didn't work that way. So in the end they have put a lot of work in for nothing here. Chimaev has to come out and say it's about Ramadan but absolutely nobody is buying that as the reason, the guy wanted to fight on 300 and the UFC wanted it too. No doubt about it.
In the UFC he still delivered when fighting elsewhere in the world. But despite getting three POTN bonuses in a row, he only got to take on a Bellator-level fighter for his next fight, as it would take place in Moscow. This is what Mairbek said:
“It always comes back to the visa excuses, and my lawyers kept telling me ‘Hey, Beckan, two more weeks and we’ll get the visa’, but I am here still waiting. They have promised me they will get this visa, but nothing is happening. I don’t know what the problem is. I am not a criminal, I haven’t done anything wrong. I’m just a sportsman. I’ve put all of my life into the sport and because of a piece of paper I cannot fight with the best guys in the best promotion. That’s the situation, but I hope very soon I will get this visa. I haven’t lost hope."
Taisumov believed that a political issue was standing in the way of him competing in the U.S.
“It’s just a political thing, but I don’t know why they choose to punish me. I’m not the only one, they don’t get [visas] for many fighters. Politics are for politicians, I don’t know why we are affected."
Getting some fighters to risk their ranking spot can be difficult, ‘Beckan’ believed that asking top-tier opponents to come to Europe to compete had made things even more difficult:
“I really hope that someday I could be given a title shot, but the top 10 guys don’t want to fight outside of America. They’re just fighting in America, so I don’t know what to do. If you want to fight for the title you have to fight some of the top guys. They want to fight at home, they always tell me ‘Come over here and fight me!’, I swear to God, I don’t care where I fight. I’ll fight anyone, any time, anywhere. All these guys who are saying ‘If you want to fight you should come to America’, they 100 percent know that I have no visa to fight over there.”
As the situation never got solved, Mairbek decided to instead become a citizen of Morocco as they could aid in getting a visa there. In return he was willing to represent their country and share his positive views about life there on social media. And yet as the next year came, he was bound to fight in Abu Dhabi. At least against an upcoming guy who had made a name for himself in Carlos Diego Ferreira, but this was the last fight of his contract so win or lose he would have split. He gave up.
I feel like the same thing probably has happened again with Khamzat Chimaev. He started to represent and post about UAE when he understood that he'd never get a Swedish citizenship and only would remain a resident there. Didn't they promise him the same thing as Morocco, that they would be able to aid him in finalizing a visa? And once again the UFC likely thought it would be able to solve, with their good relationship with the UAE and all. Then for whatever reason it didn't work that way. So in the end they have put a lot of work in for nothing here. Chimaev has to come out and say it's about Ramadan but absolutely nobody is buying that as the reason, the guy wanted to fight on 300 and the UFC wanted it too. No doubt about it.
