Tagir
Ulanbekov once decided to obey Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov and
certainly doesn’t regret it.
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The late Abdulmanap, father of former
UFC champ Khabib
Nurmagomedov, is regarded as a pioneer of Russian MMA who
trained a legion of elite fighters. Ulanbekov is one the fighters
who benefitted from the tutelage of Abdulmanap since his early
career.
Back in 2006, Ulanbekov joined his cousins, who were going to join
Abdulmanap’s gym. Abdulmanap summoned Ulanbekov and one of his
cousins — both of whom had long hair — and asked them to shorten it
by the next day. Ulanbekov decided to obey and there was no looking
back.
“So we’re in the gym, I had longer hair back then,” Ulanbekov told
Red Corner MMA. “Both me and one of my cousins.
So he looked at us and said, ‘You two, where are you from?’ And I
said, ‘We came here to train.’ He took my hair like this [grabbed]
pulled me out of the line-up and said, ‘I’ll grab your hair and
throw a knee. Cut it off by the next training session. In this gym
I have the longest hair.’ I believe I made an informed choice then.
Cut my hair off and came back to the gym.”
Ulanbekov is on a three-fight winning streak with two finishes.
Ulanbekov is set to face former UFC fighter and two-division Rizin
champ Kyoji
Horiguchi, who returns for his second stint at
UFC Baku on June 21 at the Baku Crystal Hall.