Caucasus Fighters

[Julius_Caesar]

There has been a Dutch fighter thread and Thai's in kickboxing thread but another area on the globe that produces good kickboxers as well as fighters from other combat sports is the Caucasus area (Armenia, Azerbaijani, Georgia and south east Russia/Chechnya). I know some people get sensitive when you talk about ethnic groups but I am not from the Caucasus area so there is no secret agenda and I'm not saying that group are superior to any other group of people. Its just an observation.

Firstly you have the Petrosyan brothers who moved from Armenia to Italy when Giorgio was 13. Italy has a population of 61 million and only have around 2000 Armenians yet one of those Armenians arguably became the best kickboxer in history.

You have the Grigorians who are from Armenia but live in Belgium and are both good kickboxers.

You have Chingiz Allazov who lives in Belarus but originally from Azerbaijan.

You have Enriko Gogokhia who lives in Ukraine but originally from Georgia as well as Davit Kiria who is from Georgia.

You have Khayal Dzhaniev who lives in Russia but originally from Azerbaijan. He's another decent fighter who beat Buakaw.

You also have plenty of mma fighters like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Gegard Mousassi, Karo Parisyan and boxers like Artur Beterbiev (my favorite boxer) and Vanes Martirosyan. I'm sure there are others I cant think of atm.

Caucasus countries also do pretty well in the Olympics Judo, Wrestling and Boxing (per capita) as well as neighboring countries like Ukraine and Kazakhstan. (Some good fighters from Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan fighting regularly in Thailand).

You cant help but notice that area produces some great fighters when you take into consideration their population compared to the world population. Even when they're spread out in other countries.

Would love to see a Chingiz vs Marat rematch in 2018





My favorite boxer at the moment. Artur Beterbiev:

 

[jreez]

I'm not too educated on the kickboxing scene right now but some notable boxers from the Caucasus area (Armenia, Azerbaijani, Georgia and south east Russia/Chechnya) and personally my favorites to watch.
-GGG (Kazakhstan)
-Ruslan Provodnikov (Russia)
-Lomachenko (Ukraine)
-Alexnader Povetkin (Russia)

As far as MMA I noticed you left out Cro Cop and Fedor

 

[Julius_Caesar]

I'm not too educated on the kickboxing scene right now but some notable boxers from the Caucasus area (Armenia, Azerbaijani, Georgia and south east Russia/Chechnya) and personally my favorites to watch.
-GGG (Kazakhstan)
-Ruslan Provodnikov (Russia)
-Lomachenko (Ukraine)
-Alexnader Povetkin (Russia)

As far as MMA I noticed you left out Cro Cop and Fedor

Some of the fighters you mentioned are not from the Caucasus area. They are from neighboring countries.

 

[jreez]

Some of the fighters you mentioned are not from the Caucasus area. They are from neighboring countries.

Back to geography class for me then.

 

[Julius_Caesar]

Back to geography class for me then.

Its a simple mistake.

 

[shincheckin]

Andrei Kulebin

 

[shincheckin]

anvar boynazarov

 

[shincheckin]

mosab amrani. I think he may be dutch, but his ethnicity is???

 

[Mafanofe]

because they come from a region of the world(eastern europe and a lot of former soviet republic) that always had a lot of contact with combat sports

Boxing,Wrestling and later then Kickboxing were pretty popular sports and ascended well in all of these countries back in the time

The sport would have a lot of big names from Bolivia,India,Mexico,Lebanon or whatever the country if the sport was popularized with some good ammount of time and good coaches(people who had experience fighting-coaching at big leagues,learning with the best) to evolute the internal competition to export world class talent....

 

[Mafanofe]

mosab amrani. I think he may be dutch, but his ethnicity is???

Moroccan

 

[Snubnoze707]

I think their is something to be said about the level of toughness coming from people who lived in areas with a great deal of conflict.

Contrary to suggested melanin performance enhancing beliefs, an argument can be made along those lines in regards to African Americans in the US having a lot of success in sports having risen out of rough urban areas.

 

[SuperLuigi]

They are a super badass super tough guy traditional culture there, living in the mountains wrestling each other. Also a Georgian guy has the world record for the clean and press, and there is usually a Gerogian guy in the strongman top 10, so definitely a strong folk.

 

[shincheckin]

I think their is something to be said about the level of toughness coming from people who lived in areas with a great deal of conflict.

Contrary to suggested melanin performance enhancing beliefs, an argument can be made along those lines in regards to African Americans in the US having a lot of success in sports having risen out of rough urban areas.

same thing has been said about alot of top level mexican boxers. The armenians are pretty tough people that experiened a war, as are the cambodians. People that come from countries were killings are regular, well a fight with gloves is nothing. Also stepping into the ring with the genuine heart to kill the man in front of you rather than just win im sure plays a role as well. Doesnt mean your going to win, but you know they got the heart to fight.

 

[Sakuraba7]

Some of the fighters you mentioned are not from the Caucasus area. They are from neighboring countries.

Also would like to point out the North Caucasus is simply 'South Russia', not south east. There is no south east, but the closest thing to it would be the Far Eastern district (bordering Japan and Alaska).

 

[Sakuraba7]

I think their is something to be said about the level of toughness coming from people who lived in areas with a great deal of conflict.

Contrary to suggested melanin performance enhancing beliefs, an argument can be made along those lines in regards to African Americans in the US having a lot of success in sports having risen out of rough urban areas.

While poverty and rough upbringing play a huge part. Diet/nutrition and training facilities has effect as well. If you notice Africa doesn't produce too many champions despite the conflicts and the moderate popularity of regional boxing in several countries.

Even the poorest people in the US or Mexico have significantly better access to training equipment than Africa. Africans have to import everything likely at a high cost to them. In South Africa where boxing is probably the most prevalent on the continent, a huge fraction if not half the fighters are white. Even though whites are mostly middle class or upper-middle class (not lower class). So access to proper gear and nutrition plays a role.

Furthermore, countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan perform very well in boxing, but neither are conflict zones. They haven't been in centuries. So you can't say they've been molded by conflict.

 

[Snubnoze707]

While poverty and rough upbringing play a huge part. Diet/nutrition and training facilities has effect as well. If you notice Africa doesn't produce too many champions despite the conflicts and the moderate popularity of regional boxing in several countries.

Even the poorest people in the US or Mexico have significantly better access to training equipment than Africa. Africans have to import everything likely at a high cost to them. In South Africa where boxing is probably the most prevalent on the continent, a huge fraction if not half the fighters are white. Even though whites are mostly middle class or upper-middle class (not lower class). So access to proper gear and nutrition plays a role.

Furthermore, countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan perform very well in boxing, but neither are conflict zones. They haven't been in centuries.

No doubt, it's certainly not a single issue situation. Their are a lot of factors involved. I was speaking more to the level of toughness, which doesn't always equate to success if not accompanied by skill which is reliant on proper training.

 

[dsdoubled]

I don't know a whole lot about the kickboxers or boxers from the area but my god do they have an incredible amount of wrestling talent in the area. The vast majority of wrestlers competing under the Russian Federation flag in the world championships and Olympics are from Dagestan, Ossetia, Chechnya, etc. Then countries in the area (like you mentioned) Georgia and Azerbaijan are also extremely good at wrestling. Additionally, even many of the Iranian wrestlers winning world and Olympic medals are from the northern most section that borders Azerbaijan. Its really pretty incredible how many medals have been won by such a small population/area.

 

[Julius_Caesar]

I don't know a whole lot about the kickboxers or boxers from the area but my god do they have an incredible amount of wrestling talent in the area. The vast majority of wrestlers competing under the Russian Federation flag in the world championships and Olympics are from Dagestan, Ossetia, Chechnya, etc. Then countries in the area (like you mentioned) Georgia and Azerbaijan are also extremely good at wrestling. Additionally, even many of the Iranian wrestlers winning world and Olympic medals are from the northern most section that borders Azerbaijan. Its really pretty incredible how many medals have been won by such a small population/area.

Judo as well. Very tough people.

 

[Julius_Caesar]

an argument can be made along those lines in regards to African Americans in the US having a lot of success in sports having risen out of rough urban areas.

Yes I'm sure that helps but genetics also plays a role. Good old genetics. The touchy subject certain people refuse to acknowledge because it "hurts their feelings".

Not all African Americans live in rough urban areas. I've seen plenty of kids that look like how Mike Tyson looked at 14 and it had nothing to do with living in a rough neighborhood. Why do you think most great sprinters are from west african descent yet most great swimmers are European? Does the rough neighborhood living only work in sports on land?

 

[Sakuraba7]

I don't know a whole lot about the kickboxers or boxers from the area but my god do they have an incredible amount of wrestling talent in the area. The vast majority of wrestlers competing under the Russian Federation flag in the world championships and Olympics are from Dagestan, Ossetia, Chechnya, etc. Then countries in the area (like you mentioned) Georgia and Azerbaijan are also extremely good at wrestling. Additionally, even many of the Iranian wrestlers winning world and Olympic medals are from the northern most section that borders Azerbaijan. Its really pretty incredible how many medals have been won by such a small population/area.

A lot of the competitors from the neighboring countries are also from the North Caucasus. They have so many good wrestlers but not enough slots. Several compete for foreign flags. You'll notice a lot of the Azerbaijan wrestlers are actually from Dagestan.


EDIT: Of Azerbaijan's 11 male wrestlers at the 2016 Rio Olympics. 2 were from Dagestan. 2 were from Iran. 1 was from Ossetia. At Greco-Roman, the 2 Iranians were the only ones to win a medal (the 3 Azeris did not). At Freestyle, 2 of the 3 north Caucasians won a medal (as did 3 Azeris).

Of Belarus' 6 male wrestlers at 2016 Rio, 4 of the 6 were from Dagestan. 1 was from Ossetia. And only 1 was native Bellarussian. They won 2 medals, both were Dagestanis.

Of Poland's 4 male wrestlers at 2016 Rio, 1 of them was from Dagestan.