Is MMA willing to open up more towards CIS (ex-soviet) fighters? Because boxing has been going that direction for a while now. Historically CIS boxers stayed in amateurs doing very well, but recently more have opted the professional route (most recently Central-Asians), but there's still lot of politics (country and especially what promoter you're with, determines if you get a fair shot in the boxing game).
MMA has just recently been easing that way, but there's still barriers. For example: Bellator seems to have a blacklist on North Caucasian fighters. They've got some Russian fighters but they're all teammates of Fedor. That's like signing American boxers but barring Blacks/Hispanics. How do you bar the dominant contingent? There's still some issues in the UFC as well. I've noticed all the Caucasus fighters in the UFC are through Ali AbdelAziz, which means they don't really have any other method or drive to sign these guys beyond just one manager. That's not very attractive if you ask me. What happens when he's not around? Or better yet, he can't possibly sign all the fighters. Which explains why a large chunk of them are friends/teammates of Khabib. I'd like to see more variety and more people given a shot. Its way too much politics (its about who you know....which is only Khabib and Ali, at this point).
