A Potential hurdle... Russian-Dagestani / Eastern European takeover

krelianx

krelianx

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I think there is a very strong chance as we move forward that the majority of divisions have Russian-Dagestani or Eastern European champions. While this is fair, and I do think they are the best fighters in the world, it does set a problem as far as entertainment value is concerned. People tend to forget that MMA, like every sport, is at the end of the day part of the entertainment industry, and unfortunately the wrestling pressure heavy style of the Russian-Dagestani school is not necessarily the most popular among fans. It is also not peculiarly helpful to have one region be overly dominant, with guys who are generally quiet, and not histrionic figures.

At BW we have Merab currently, and the next obvious contender is Umar.

Evloev seems like the next obvious guy at FW, and he is particularly boring.

At LW we have Islam, and nobody seems to present a legitimate challenge.

At WW we have Belal (Palestinian American), who is not very popular, and Shavkat coming up, who is exciting to watch, who is not from E. Europe. Ok.

Khamzat at MW is a question mark since he is utterly unreliable, but he is also an exciting fighter.

At LHW there is only so long one can hold before Ankalaev gets another shot. And he's another snoozer.

Valentina again as champion is, well, what it is...

And this is assuming no new signings from that area take place.
 
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It seems like you mentioned a lot of fighters who are not Dagestani nor are they the champions? You also left out a few divisions.

Cmon bro. Also, if you're just talking about Russians in general why even mention the word "Dagestan", just say Russian (and the hell is Shavkat a Russian person?)
 
there's several things going on here. first, MMA like any sport, goes through "metas". right now it's Dagestani grapplers, but before that it was Brazlian berserkers, before that it was American wrestlers, before that it was BJJ.

the 2nd thing is Islam doesn't "seem" like he has any challenges because he literally gets to CHOOSE who he fights. his 1st 2 title defenses were against a FW, his 3rd is vs a guy who was on a 1 fight win streak and had just been ktfo before that. i still have yet to see him fight another LW who is young and in their prime since he got the belt.

C. UFC is going to start holding these guys back if it looks like they're going to dominate and have boring styles/no personality. it's already happening. Evloev got leapfrogged by Lopes, who Evloev already beat. look at the rankings, Evloev isn't even top 5 even though he's undefeated, the guy he beat, Lopes is now ranked #3. how does that work? because UFC gave him the #2 guy in Ortega and what did Evloev get for all his winning ways? Aljo who is brand new to the division and only has a single win. Evloev even beat Ige, another guy Lopes beat before he got the Ortega fight and Evloev beat him easier than Lopes did.
 
Well, I'm sure someone else will take issue with this, but the "guy" at FW is clearly Ilia, a grappling and striking threat. Evloev could get there, but he's still ... Just not there yet. In fact I may remember thinking Allen arguably won that one...

High-explosion fighters will continue to do well at 185 up, my prediction.
 
Doctor Grudge said:
It seems like you mentioned a lot of fighters who are not Dagestani nor are they the champions? You also left out a few divisions.

Cmon bro. Also, if you're just talking about Russians in general why even mention the word "Dagestan", just say Russian (and the hell is Shavkat a Russian person?)
Click to expand...

I said Russian-Dagestani or Eastern European champions in the first sentence, and said moving forward. Did you even read the post or just read the title and assumed the content?
 
krelianx said:
I think there is a very strong chance as we move forward that the majority of divisions have Russian-Dagestani or Eastern European champions. While this is fair, and I do think they are the best fighters in the world, it does set a problem as far as entertainment value is concerned. People tend to forget that MMA, like every sport, is at the end of the day part of the entertainment industry, and unfortunately the wrestling pressure heavy style of the Russian-Dagestani school is not necessarily the most popular among fans. It is also not peculiarly helpful to have one region be overly dominant, with guys who are generally quiet, and not histrionic figures.

At BW we have Merab currently, and the next obvious contender is Umar.

Evloev seems like the next obvious guy at FW, and he is particularly boring.

At LW we have Islam, and nobody seems to present a legitimate challenge.

At WW we have Belal, who is not very popular, and Shavkat coming up, who is exciting to watch.

Khamzat at MW is a question mark since he is utterly unreliable, but he is also an exciting fighter.

At LHW there is only so long one can hold before Ankalaev gets another shot. And he's another snoozer.

Valentina again as champion is, well, what it is...

And this is assuming no new signings from that area take place.
Click to expand...


Mma kinda goes through phases. My prediction is that the next big thing after Russian wrestling is going to be a kind of modern chuck liddell style. The champions will all have a super bad ass sprawl and ko power.
 
krelianx said:
I said Russian-Dagestani or Eastern European champions in the first sentence, and said moving forward. Did you even read the post or just read the title and assumed the content?
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I read it, but it's fairly convoluted and none of the people you mentioned are from Eastern Europe. Not even one person.

edit: I'm not sure about Movsar, he seems central Asian, but I could be wrong. It'd be redundant regardless since he is Russian.
 
Doctor Grudge said:
I read it, but it's fairly convoluted and none of the people you mentioned are from Eastern Europe. Not even one person.

edit: I'm not sure about Movsar, he seems central Asian, but I could be wrong. It'd be redundant regardless since he is Russian.
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Russia/Dagestan/Ukraine are Eastern Europe. Valentina is from a Russian Ukrainian family and describes herself as Russian.

Islam is Dagestani. Umar is Dagestani. Khamzat is from Chechnya. Ankalaev is Dagestani.

What are you talking about?
 
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NoSmilez said:
He isn't from eastern Europe.

Honestly Russians and Dagestanis have been in the UFC for a while now. People don't pay attention to the ones that flop.
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True. For whatever reason I remembered Shavkat being from Russia.
 
krelianx said:
People tend to forget that MMA, like every sport, is at the end of the day part of the entertainment industry, and unfortunately the wrestling pressure heavy style of the Russian-Dagestani school is not necessarily the most popular among fans.
Click to expand...

Feel free to list the boring Dagi champs we have had so far. You brought up Merab, who is Georgian, and Belal, who is Palestinian-American. Neither of those two are Russian or grew up in Russia. And yet I imagine they are what inspired this thread, which is ridiculous. How on earth could you confuse those guys for Russian?

How about try listing the actual Russian fighters such as Fedor, Khabib, Yan, Chimaev, Zabit, Volkov, Arlovski, Kharitonov, Oleinik, etc.
 
what you’re seeing is that very rich people from the middle east have been investing in combat sports. the recent pandering push toward that region has less to do with dagestan and more to do with muslims. as others have pointed out, many of the fighters you mentioned aren’t dagestani. yet they will be perfectly marketable in the middle east due to their cultural identities as muslims.

the takeaway is that you are not watching some organic takeover of dagestani wrestlers or something like that. you’re taking in a well-funded marketing push toward the middle east.
 
blaseblase said:
Feel free to list the boring Dagi champs we have had so far. You brought up Merab, who is Georgian, and Belal, who is Palestinian-American. Neither of those two are Russian or grew up in Russia. And yet I imagine they are what inspired this thread, which is ridiculous. How on earth could you confuse those guys for Russian?

How about try listing the actual Russian fighters such as Fedor, Khabib, Yan, Chimaev, Zabit, Volkov, Arlovski, Kharitonov, Oleinik, etc.
Click to expand...

I mentioned Evloev, Islam, Umar, Valentina, Ankalaev, and Khamzat. Merab is from Eastern Europe.
 
mister piscadinha said:
if georgian merab count as "russian", why doesnt illia?
also illia would beat the livin shit out of evloev


also, why the fuck are u counting a american muslim as "russian"?
Click to expand...

Are you people stupid or just don't have reading comprehension?

I didn't say Merab was Russian. My first sentence was:

"I think there is a very strong chance as we move forward that the majority of divisions have Russian-Dagestani or Eastern European champions."

Merab is Georgian, which is Eastern Europe. I mentioned a couple people who were not Eastern European (Belal, Shavkat). But the rest were.
 
krelianx said:
Are you people stupid or just don't have reading comprehension?

I didn't say Merab was Russian. My first sentence was:

"I think there is a very strong chance as we move forward that the majority of divisions have Russian-Dagestani or Eastern European champions."

Merab is Georgian, which is Eastern Europe. I mentioned a couple people who were not Eastern European (Belal, Shavkat). But the rest were.
Click to expand...

why no illia tho? he may be a spaniard but genetically he's a caucasian fighter just like merab

also, the "ugly" truth about the dagestani domination is that in 10 years it produced 2 ufc champs, both from the same gym and clan
 
mister piscadinha said:
why no illia tho? he may be a spaniard but genetically he's a caucasian fighter just like merab

also, the "ugly" truth about the dagestani domination is that in 10 years it produced 2 ufc champs, both from the same gym and clan
Click to expand...

Okay, you can add Illia there. And he is half Spanish, so it is unlikely he is Caucasian.
 
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