UFC bias against signing Russian fighters?

[TomH1134]

Let's look at this objectively

Russia is by far the most dominant country in wrestling and weightlifting history, and has been a powerhouse in boxing

it's pretty obvious that Russians are the toughest SOBs in the world and it's only a matter of time until they dominate the UFC

Lol truth but the problem from the UFC's point of view is that none of these Russian guys are marketable in the slightest especially given the current political climate in the US

 

[ArmenianAssasin]

Zhumagulov is from Kazakhstan and there is only one another Kazakhstani in UFC (Rakhmonov).

I know but op mentioned him in his post as someone “not being signed due to russian bias “

 

[PhilLeotardo]

The average Russian makes more then the average Brazilian. And its easier for the Brazilians to fight in the USA less tollon their body. Russians and Japanese fighter get dicked that way.

The part about fighter income is right

The part about toll on their body. Facepalm. Lol. No

Japanese fighters suck

Russian guys don’t get signed to the UFC in droves because they make good money fighting in local promotions, and their asking price is too high compared to what kind of revenue they bring in. It doesn’t currently make sense financially for the UFC to be signing lots of Slavic fighters to hefty deals. Also, many Russian athletes are on PEDs that are currently illegal in murica. Those are the only two reasons

Having said that, the future of *all* combat sports is clearly in Eastern Europe. That becomes clearer & clearer with each passing year. So the UFC will eventually be forced to start paying these guys, otherwise people will tune out & their reputation as the home of the top guys on earth will be jeopardized

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Then why aren't all of them in Bellator? Could it be that they perhaps aren't as skilled as some may think? Anyone who becomes elite will 99/100 times tried to be signed to the UFC. If you are on UFC gatekeeper level, then it's more about getting lucky as we can't have a roster with thousands of people that would technically beat the worst UFC fighter right now.

It's hard to get out of Bellator once you're in there it seems. Most of them talk about wanting to go to the UFC, not Bellator.

 

[Blazmo]

Let's look at this objectively

Russia is by far the most dominant country in wrestling and weightlifting history, and has been a powerhouse in boxing

it's pretty obvious that Russians are the toughest SOBs in the world and it's only a matter of time until they dominate the UFC

US has more medals in freestyle wrestling at the Olympics, so obviously Russia doesn't 'dominate' there, frigging China is second in Olympic weightlifting and Britain alone is arguably a bigger powerhouse in boxing than Russia. Russians get a lot of hype, especially on here, but if you look at their achievements through even a semi-objective lens it's obvious they're not as athletically talented as certain other countries.

 

[pankrat]

I'm not sure the UFC and PFL have signed the best Russian prospects though. They tend to pick up Fight Nights Global and M1 guys rather than ACA guys. If you look at the record of ACA guys coming over to the UFC it's pretty good (Zabit Magomedsharipov, Petr Yan, Askar Askarov are all from there).

11 Russians are ranked in the UFC, which is 30% of the Russians on the roster, I don't think that's too bad.

Kunchenko or Emeev are not from ACA but they were legit champions in Russia, and actually beat contenders for the tittle in ACA

 

[Feniamin]

Yeah, don't know what UFC's issue is. But if a Russian fighter wants to get in the UFC and has a good record, they should sign him.

Perhaps do a USA vs Russia TUF. That'd be a cool way to introduce a number of Russians at once if UFC doesn't just want to bring them over to begin with.

I remember commenting about idea of Russian TUF here.
It will be something like that - if the fighter is Muslim "Hello, my name is Ali/Islam/Rashid, I love Allah, my family, my cat and wrestling. My brother was a wrestler so I wrestled too but I wasn't too good and now I'm an mma fighter.", version for non-Muslims "Hello, my name is Ivan/Artem/Dmitriy, I love God and my family. My father/brother was a martial artist so I became martial artist too." And one group will refuse to drink because haram and others because it's not in modern trends.
There is a risk that a fighter can be involved in crimes (Sosnovskiy is the recent example) (from Khabib's Eagles MMA team if I'm not mistaken 2 guys are serving time for blackmailing/extraction + recent news that 4 guys from Eagles MMA were found guilty in assault (I think that's the right English word, 4 of them beat one guy from the gym on the street)).
And for example when Khabib's father talks about having multiple wives in media people in comments doesn't like that stuff (I think reveal in one article that Khabib is married to his relative wasn't liked by people too). And I wouldn't be surprised if a fighter goes on a rant about females in mma/homosexuals/non-Muslims/Atheists/non-White races/ethnic or religious minorities etc.
So Americans will be bored and probably even in the seasons finals would not be able to tell what is the name of that bearded guy that fights now.

 

[markys00]

Proves the claim that the UFC seeks out the best fighters to be completely false

It’s not a sport, it’s a business like WWE

This is proof to u? U HAVE to be a troll

 

[Mattitude V1]

Seems like the UFC is packed to the gills with Russian fighters. There may be a limit, but if there is, it seems pretty high.

It seems weird to me that people just want them to sign EVERYBODY in perpetuity.