Seems like lots of good Russians are under exclusive contracts with other promotions + they hardly speak any English.
I could care less about them speaking english. Many brazilians didn't speak english. But the contract thing you are right about and it's a shame because there is a lot of talent in Russia that would fill a lot of divisions.
Khabib won't let any more Russians fight until he is guaranteed the belt and a potential fight against Conor.
From what I understand Fox Sports only shows TUF with Americans or people from English speaking countries. All this Latin America stuff UFC shows on Fight Pass. And I think they will plan to air TUF with the top LW fighters as coaches at Fox Sports. And in this case -- subtitles for training sessions, subtitles for conversations between fighters, subtitles for advices from corner. Plus, zero trashtalk and sobriety (because lots of fighters are Muslims and currently being sober is like a some trend among Russian fighters).
It'd be USA vs Russia and you could not ask for a better time to do it. Then you can do BJJ vs Sambo and a bunch of other dynamic nonsense like American emotional spheres vs Russian stoicism and supposedly different training methods. You could have a number of layers to it and I think with those coaches it'd be gold. No way we get that lucky
And about Khabib -- his father complained that he can't receive American visa for some time (I think last time he was in USA was when he cornered Makhachev in his UFC debut). And he is like wrestling coach/main coach of Khabib and his guys when they are not at AKA. But maybe Khabib just asks AKA guys to work as a coaches for this season.
And Khabib is from Dagestan. He speaks in Russian with accent and his father speaks and writes in Russian like it's his third language or something and even Dagestani guys can't understand him.
