Tagir Ulanbekov has been dominating the arena ever since he began fighting under the banner of Gorilla Fighting Championship. He often deploys his strong wrestling skills to bring his opponents down and has won 9 of his 15 victories via submission. That’s quite an achievement, don’t you think? But this has put a question mark on Ulanbekov.

The MMA world has often wondered if Ulanbekov actually hails from Dagestan. After all, his wrestling prowess definitely seemed to convey that. So,today let’s take a deep dive into the flyweight’s early life and find out everything there is to know about his early life.

Is Tagir Ulanbekov from Dagestan?

Ulanbekov was born in Dylym, a village in the Kazbekovsky district of the Republic of Dagestan. On July 8, 1991, an Avar family welcomed him into the world. Well, this was indeed the greatest privilege one can get to have a successful career in the realm of martial arts. With Dagestan’s rich culture and tradition revolving around wrestling, there was no way Ulanbekov could have escaped the fighting world. 

We have often seen Ulanbekov training together with the Dgestani team, including the likes of Islam Makhachev, Umar Nurmagomedov, and Khabib Nurmagomedov. In an interview with Anatomy of a Fighter, back in 2022, the flyweight star weighed in on the cheat code of having ‘The Eagle’ in his corner.

He said, “For me, it’s a huge motivation to have Khabib in my corner. Not too long ago, he was the pound-for-pound number-one fighter on the planet. And he is considered the greatest of all time. It’s a huge motivation and honor to have him in my corner. When people like Khabib, Islam, and Javier are in my corner, I have nothing to worry about.”

Before Ulanbekov became a full-time sanctioned fighter, he used to work at the food market with his mother. Later, he went on to pursue a degree in management. But the call of the fights was stronger and pulled him to the fighting realm. Ulanbekov won the Gorilla Fighting Flyweight Championship in 2019 and defended his title twice in the same year. And that was how he established himself in the realm of mixed martial arts. 

The legacy that Ulanbekov is trying to achieve has urged the fighting community to wonder about the story behind how he began training. And you’ve also wondered the same, you’ve come to the right spot. Let’s find out how Ulanbekov got into the world of martial arts. 

How did Tagir Ulanbekov start fighting? 

Like most of the Dagestanis, Ulanbekov began his journey in the world of martial arts from a very young age. As per reports, he once went to a wrestling event with his uncle and was enticed by the magic of the sport. When he was 8 years old, he joined Eagles MMA and trained under the guidance of the legend, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov. When the UFC asked him about the story of how he started his training, Ulanbekov replied, “I started training in 2006. I came to the gym to fix my injured hand and that’s how I become a fighter.” 

Of course, he didn’t get to learn from Nurmagomedov’s late father all the time. After all, he wasn’t a regular coach at the gym. But the way he motivated Ulanbekov and taught him “how to be a man in life,” had quite an impact on him as a professional. Talking to the UFC, he said, “The amount of time, the amount of hours that he put into us, it is now our honor, our responsibility to go out and show all of this.” And he’d have to bring pride as a student of the great Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.

Now, Ulanbekov is set to lock horns with Clayton Carpenter at UFC 311. He’s indeed set to share the event with Makhachev and Umar Nurmagomedov, who’d fight with the championship belt on the line. The #11 flyweight prospect currently has 15 wins and 2 defeats on his professional MMA record. Wearing the tag of a 2-fight win streak, we can certainly expect him to execute his superior wrestling and dominate the fight against Carpenter. 

Do you think training with Makhachev and Nurmagomedov has strengthened Ulanbekov enough to claim the win at UFC 311? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.