The Dagestanis are coming! The Dagestanis are here.
Jeff Bottari & Jim Kemper/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
By Mike ChiappettaJun 4, 2014 at 3:40p ET
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When Rustam Khabilov moved to New Mexico, he arrived by himself, a stranger in a foreign land, unable to speak English. He moved here to fulfill his promise, become elite, maybe even a champion.
On Saturday, he gets to measure himself against a recent one. After just 18 months in the UFC, the 27-year-old lightweight draws Benson Henderson in a match that is in some ways far greater than a one-off between a hopeful contender and a former champ intent on returning to the top. It is a bout that may perhaps foreshadow the future of the sport.
In case you haven't been paying attention, the Russians are coming. More specifically, the Dagestanis are. And actually, they're already here.
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Khabilov is part of a growing trend that has seen fighters from Russia's Caucasus region blossom internationally and threaten the pecking order among MMA's elite.
The influx began in earnest in the early months of 2011, when well-known New Jersey-based trainer and manager Mike Constantino promoted a show that was scheduled to include a match between IFL veteran Jamal Patterson and Chechen fighter Adlan Amagov. (Chechnya is Dagestan's neighboring republic to the west.)
The fight never materialized, but when Constantino watched film on Amagov, he was intrigued. His striking was some of the crispest, cleanest he'd ever seen.
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"This guy is amazing," Constantino told Amagov's then-handler Sam Kardan.
"Mike," Kardan replied, "we have 40 or 50 of these guys."
A lightbulb went off in Constantino's head. Before long, he and Kardan partnered up, and helped bring over several fighters from the region, including Dagestanis Khabib Nurmagomedov, Rashid Magomedov and Azamat Gashimov, all of whom would go on to fight in the UFC.
The floodgates soon opened.
"Right after that we started getting calls that there were other people trying to go into that region and it became a free-for-all," Constantino said. "We'd be trying to maintain relationships with the fighters we had, and all these other people came in promising these crazy things. As you see now, there turned out to be a ton of talent in the region."
That talent gets highlighted the next two weekends on the sport's biggest stage. While Khabilov gets his opportunity at this Saturday's UFC Fight Night in his adopted home city of Albuquerque, one week later, another Dagestani, Ali Bagautinov, attempts to become the first to win a UFC championship when he takes on flyweight king Demetrious Johnson in the UFC 174 headliner.
All this from a little republic with a population of 2.9 million, roughly the size of Utah.
Khabib likes giving opponents free airtime.
Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC / Zuffa LLC
And it doesn't end there. Other Dagestanis in the UFC include Ruslan Magomedovand Omari Akhmedov.
Combined record of the active UFC Dagestanis? A cool 16-1.
What's behind the success? First off, an emphasis on wrestling from youth for all of the region's boys. It's essentially the republic's unofficial "official" sport, and nearly mandatory, even for grade schoolers. Clearly, that breeds a hyper-competitive gene. Then, there is the hard life many experience growing up. For years, the region has seen outbreaks of terrorism as well as violent efforts at independence from Russia. Partially as a result of that, its economy has remained stagnant and opportunities limited for the area's residents. All in all, it's a hard place to grow up.
Striking coach Mike Winkeljohn remembers once helping warm up Amagov for a fight with a strong opponent. He looked at Amagov and couldn't quite gauge his nerves, so he asked his manager to find out if Amagov was OK.
"He said, 'Tell coach I spent seven years in a camp with my family, and with Russians shooting at us from helicopters. That's just a man,'" Winkeljohn recalled.