Outside Source
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.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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