Draft:Islam Mamedov

Islam Zeynetdinovich Mamedov (Ислам Зейнетдинович Мамедов; Ислам Зайнудинан Мугьаммадарин; born February 10, 1990) is a Russian MMA fighter, currently plying his trade in the Lightweight division of Bellator MMA.  He has been fighting as pro since 2009. He has at past competed in Fight Nights Global (FNG) & Professional Fighters League (PFL). As of December 10, 2023, he is #6 in the Bellator Lightweight Rankings.

Mamedov is a two-time world combat sambo champion. From July 2, 2009 to January 29, 2022, he was on a 20 fights unbeaten streak in MMA competitions, that lasted nearly 12 years.

Background
Mamedov was born on February 10, 1990 in  Makhachkala, Dagestan region, a city on the Caspian Sea coast at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains. The Mamedov family practices Islam and belongs to the Lezgins ethnicity, an indigenous people of the Caucasus region. He read the Koran from an early age.

Like most Dagestanis, Mamedov was involved in wrestling as a youngster, but not professionally. Than he partook in in Kūdō classes, then pankration and at some point he was also doing sports sambo.

He lived next door to Khabib's house, which was almost 500 to 700 meters away from his home. Mamedov and Khabib had many mutual acquaintances and friends. Some of them even trained with Khabib's father Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.

One day, a 17 years old Mamedov, asked one of his mutual friends with Khabib, to enroll him in Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov combat sambo program. Since he was already friends with Khabib, he was well-aware of the grueling training demands, Abdulmanap requires of his students. So Mamedov came to his first training well prepared; as result it went well for him.

Abdulmanap's combat sambo training camp usually occurred either at the San Marino Gym or the mountains. San Marino is the name of the institute located in Makhachkala formally called Institute of Law and Finance. Abdulmanap, unlike other combat sambo coaches, asserted a lot of emphasis on wrestling; ninety percent of his training session involved some form of wrestling drills.

The toughest part of the training was in the mountains, where Mamedov and his fellow combat sambo aspirants had three training sessions daily. Mamedov and his colleagues would wake up at at 6-7 am in the morning, where they wash themselves, get dressed, then after 15-20 minutes would get downstairs, and would run and jog in the cold weather of the mountains.

After the aerobic exercise, Mamedov and his comrades would begin their combat sambo training along with exercising with weights. At 11 am Mamedov and his teammates would have breakfast. After morning meal, they would commence their group training. Then after that, they would have lunch and finally they would participate in the evening training. They would usually train and spar in the wrestling mats.

Besides training, Mamedov along with Khabib and friends would get into street fights in their free time. In one such incident Khabib, Mamedov, Azamat Gashimov and their fourth friend were visiting a supermarket, when they were harassed by a group of four security guards. This resulted in fist fights which caused the guards to flee the scene. However Abubakar Nurmagomedov, who was opprobrious for engaging in lots of street fights, never joined them in such instances, as he was lone wolf of the group. Abubakar never invited any of his teammates from the gym to any of his personal street brawls, as he would even fight with group of people, alone.

Sambo & pankration career
As an amateur combat athlete, Mamedov first ever tournament was the Dagestan Open Combat Sambo Championship; after which he frequently partook in other amateur combat sports competitions like pankration, Kūdō and combat sambo.

November 29, 2008, Mamedov took part in Pankration Atrium Cup 2008, in Moscow Russia. He defeated all of his opponents only getting submitted by Khabib Nurmagomedov via kimura armlock in the final, thereby earning silver medal for his efforts.

October, 2010, Mamedov partook in Combat Sambo World Cup, in Yalta, Crimea. He and Islam Makhachev both represented the Sports Club (SC) Olimpiyskiye Nadezhdy (Olympic Hopes). Both him and Makhachev took gold medal in their respective weight categories. Also his team SC Olimpiyskiye Nadezhdy took first place in the podium.

December 5, 2010, Mamedov competed in XVIII Russian Combat Sambo Championship, in Moscow, Russia. He defeated then the, reigning Vice World Champion in Combat Jiu-jitsu, Ramazan Nurmagoedov in the final, thereby earning gold medal for his achievement.

13 days later, in December 18 of the same year, Mamedov won gold medal in XVI World Combat Sambo Championship, in Moscow, Russia.

On August 22, 2013 Mamedov and current UFC fighter Said Nurmagomedov won gold medals in The Republic Open Pankration Championship in their respective weight categories.

Early career
Mamedov made his debut in the local Dagestani tournament in June 27, 2009. His first professional outing was a success, as he stunned his opponent, Artur Umakhanov, in the opening minute of the fight. After a few minutes, Umakhanov decides to tap out due to Mamedov effective application of armbar on the ground. He was paid 10,000 rubles for this fight.

Mamedov agreed to compete in the octagon again, literally four days later, after his first fight. He was matched up against the future AMC lightweight champion Alexander Sarnavskiy. Two young and undefeated prospects squared off in the ring, where the Siberian fighter Sarnavksy proved to be more prepared. He handed the Dagestanis his first ever loss via a knockout.

Nevertheless, this loss pushed Mamedov to become more serious about his combat sports career. The Dagestani athlete immersed himself even more in the world of martial arts and simultaneously competed at the highest level of combat sports like MMA, pankration, Kūdō and combat sambo.

Over the course of four years, the Dagestani athlete went out to win 9 fights in row in Europeans promotions like Fight Nights Global, ProFC, M-1 Global and others. His win streaks becomes even more notable because most of his fights didn't even end up with judges decision. These performances than catches attention of the American MMA promotion World Series of Fighting (WSOF) who signed him immediately along with Khabib's cousin Abubakar Nurmagomedov.

World Series of Fighting (WSOF)
Mamedov literally burst through various opponents at WOSF as he laid bare his intent to claim their championship belt. The first fighter he faced at his WSOF debut fight was Leon Davis, who he defeated on round one of the fight via TKO, after series of roughshod ground-and-pound.

Mamedov  dominated his next opponent as well, winning two fights in a row in the opening stages. WSOF than offered him to fight the experienced and seasoned fighter Jorge Patino. If Mamedov manages to win this fight, he could move in closer with his goal of fighting for the WSOF Lightweight championship belt. The bout lasted the entire two rounds, and as a result, the judges gave the decision to Mamedov. Afterwards, Mamedov caught the eye of WSOF's matchmakers, as a potential title contender. However, his title ambition came to an immediate halt, as he suffered serious injury (torn ACL) that kept him out of action for a year and a half after his fight with Patino.

After recovering from the said injury, Mamedov was matched up against the future two-time PFL champion, Natan Schulte, who he defeated via armbar in the very first-round of the fight. Mamedov again disappeared from the sport for a year before returning with the news of being accepted into rebranded version of WSOF league, now known as Professional Fighters League (PFL).

Professional Fighters League (PFL)
Mamedov debut fight for the PFL was booked against Japanese Judoka and wrestling specialist Yuki Kawana at PFL 2: Brooks vs Firmino on June 21, 2018. This bout went to all three rounds as the Dagestani won by unanimous decision in a hard fought fight.

October 13, 2018, Mamedov was booked to fight against former UFC fighter Thiago Tavares. Mamedov won this fight via unanimous decision.

In 2019, it seemed like the Dagestani fighter was in line to fight for the lightweight championship belt, after two consecutive wins, one of which ended in a close decision. However, his plans came to an immediate halt after he was matched up against the Tajik fighter, Loik Radzhabov. The fight ended up with a majority draw, as a result the tie-breaker rule was enforced. The judges chose the victor based on who they felt had the foremost complete body of work within the battle. And in this case it was Loik Radzhabov who became beneficiary of the tie-breaker rule and advanced to the semi-finals.

Free agency
With that unsatisfactory result against Loik Radzhabov that derailed Mamedov's ambition for lightweight belt, plus with his contract with the PFL organization getting expired and the sudden breakout of the Covid-19 pandemic left him in the dark as to his next career move.

In September 25, 2020, Islam Mamedov was scheduled to fight against the Korean, Kyung Pyo Kim in a lightweight bout for the UAE Warriors promotion. Reporter John Hyon Ko discolsed that the Dagestani fighter collapsed after an intense weight cut. Mamedov was forced to withdraw from the UAE Warriors 13 co-main event, and the promotion signed Shamil Aminov of Uzbekistan as his replacement.

In November 27, 2020 Mamedov agreed to compete for UAE Warriors organization against surging Armenian-Russian fighter Martun Mezrumyan who had a record of 10-1 before this fight. Mezumyan was recently crowned as Moldovan based MMA promotion, Eagle FC lightweight champion prior to this bout. In a difficult and competitive match, the bleeding and nearly losing Mamedov turned the tables on Mezrumyan by submitting him via kneebar. With this victory, Mamedov record improved his record to 19 fights unbeaten streak.

After this fight Mamedov went underground again for about six months, until his manager Ali Abdel Aziz, was able to get him signed to the leading promotion, Bellator MMA.

Bellator MMA
In July 31, 2021, Mamedov was given debut fight for Bellator MMA, against their former lightweight champion, Brent Primus at Bellator 263 - Pitbull vs. McKee event. He defeated the former American champion via split decision. With this victory, Mamedov improved his record to 20 fights unbeaten streak.

In his second fight for the promotion, Mamedov was set to face former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson at Bellator 273 - Bader vs. Moldavsky event, on January 29, 2022. Henderson defeated Mamedov via split decision. However 5 out of 8 media journalist scored the fight as a win for Mamedov.

Mamedov third fight for Bellator was booked against former LFA Lightweight champion Nick Browne at Bellator 286 - Pitbull vs. Borics event, on October 1, 2022. He defeated his American opponent via unanimous decision.

On August 11, 2023, Mamedov was set to face-off against the BJJ specialist Sidney Outlaw on the main card of Bellator 298 - Storley vs. Ward. He lost the fight via unanimous decision.

In same year, three months later, Mamedov was booked to fight off against the Brazilian grappler Killys Mota at Bellator 301 - Amosov vs. Jackson card. Mamedov won the fight against Mota via split decision.

Personal life
Islam Mamedov later confirmed in an interview that he was born in Makhachkala, the capital of the Republic of Dagestan. Many official sources began to point out false information that he was born in southern city Derbent. The source of this confusion arose from the fact that he later trained and fought for the SC Chempion in the city of Derbent.

In SC Chempion he was teammates with Rustam Khabilov, Sultan Aliev, Magomedrasul Khasbulaev, Ikram Aliskerov, Kasum Kasumov, Magomed Alkhasov, Magomed Magomedkerimov, Hadji-Daud Gasanov. He and his colleagues were coached in Chempion SC by the likes of Shamil Zavurov (senior coach), Esed Emiragaev (senior coach), Eldar Gasanov (regular coach) & Tamerlan Sardarov (regular coach). And the president of this club was Aziz Yaraliev.

Mamedov father name is Zeynedin. Although, he is married he doesn't share the pictures and videos of his wife and his extended family in the social media network. On the other hand, his teammates like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Abubakar Nurmagomedov, Usman Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev etc frequently make appearance with him in photos and videos in his public social networking sites.

Mamedov was paid around 10,000 rubles for his first fight as a pro. This bout took place in the village of Magaramkent, Dagestan, on June 27, 2009, at Shivirli Mixfight Tournament event.

Mamedov and his fellow sambist Ikram Aliskerov both belongs to the Lezgin ethnic group of Dagestan. In 2015 Mamedov was voted as the 5th best athlete of Lezgin origin by the participants of "The Federal Lezgin National-Cultural Autonomy" (website) and “Lezgin Sports" community of VKontakte social media network.

Mamedov currently resides in the village of Kurush, which is located in the Khasavyurtovsky District. He was conferred the title of International Master of Sports in Combat Sambo by Russian Sports ministry for his achievement in the combat sambo.

Mamedov is a polyglot, as he speaks several languages ​​at the same time. He learned Lezgian and Russian from childhood. He can also read and speak Arabic. And after starting his training in America with AKA, he started learning English language as well.

Like most of fighters of Khabib's team, Mamedov has been training in the famous MMA gym American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) since 2014 or 2015, under leadership of the coach Javier Mendez. First few training sessions were bit of a revelations to him. He was surprised to find out that those fighters who had MMA bout coming up would train separately from the group. Whereas back at Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov School in Dagestan, every fighter would train together, regardless of their upcoming fights. In AKA, not only fighter would train separately, but they would have sparring matches in an actual octagon, complete with judges, cornermen and crowd to stimulate the feeling of being in an actual MMA fight.

Mamedov is an extreme sports enthusiast. Photos and videos of his trips to mountain resorts, riding on a pit bike or All-terrain vehicle on mountain terrain, conquering slopes on a snowboard, constantly appear on his social network accounts.

Mamedov's personal favorite submission technique is the armbar; he defeated his opponent with this specific technique seven times in his career. Between his training, he is usually seen playing checkers with his combat colleagues.

Mamedov never handpicks his opponents for any of his fights and instead is completely dependent on his representatives Ali Abdelaziz & Rizvan Magomedov to arrange bouts for him.

Achievements
2010 Russian Championship in Combat Sambo, Krasnokamsk (−74 kg)

2010 Russian Championship in Combat Sambo, Moscow (−74 kg)

2010 WCSF World Cup in Combat Sambo, Yalta (−74 kg)

2010 WCSF World Championship in Combat Sambo, Moscow (−74 kg)

2008 All-Russian Pankration Tournament, Moscow (−70 kg)

2013 The Republic Open Pankration Championship, Khiv (−70 kg)