Draft:Magomed Ismailov

Magomed Gasanovich Ismailov (Магоме́д Гаса́нович Исмаи́лов; born June 21, 1986, Nizhniy Tagil) is a Russian mixed martial artist currently competing in the Light Heavyweight division of Absolute Championship Akhmat. A professional since 2011, he has also fought in M-1 and Fight Nights Global.

Biography
Ismailov was born June 21, 1986, in the town of Nizhny Tagil, Sverdlovsk Oblast to an Avar father and a Kumyk mother. Although he spent most of his young years at a in Vagonka district in Nizhny Tagil, where he practiced sport sambo and kickboxing.

After getting into a fight against his schoolmate over a school lunch, that resulted in the schoolmate getting black eyed and being concussed; and ultimately with the possibility of being arrested by the police, Ismailov at the age of 9 years old, moved in with his uncle to the village town of Geli in Dagestan, where he lived with him for two years. . In Geli, his uncle assumed primary responsibility for his education.

At Geli, Ismailov was constantly bullied by the locals because of the Ural dialect (as opposed to having Dagestani accent) and his blond hair, which resulted in getting into street fights with those kids.

In school, he was given the nickname, "Russkiy Maga" (Russian Magomed) due to his blond hair by youths of Geli. The reason he was given the nickname "Russkiy Maga" because they were confused that how could an ethnic Russian (which Ismailov was not) could have a local name like Magomed as his forename.

Two years later, Ismailov's family relocated to the capital Mahachkala, where he started to go in for freestyle wrestling at the age of 12. It should be noted that he only switched from sports sambo to freestyle wrestling was because he mistakenly forgotten his sambo jacket back at Nizhny Tagil and also due to the encouragement from his father Gasan Abdulaevich, who felt that there should be at least one wrestler in a family, full of boxers.

Even in the capital of Dagestan, Ismailov engaged in street brawls with the local boys. In one such incident, he came face to face with Gamzat Saipudinov (future Russian & European Champion in Combat Sambo at 57 kg). Even back then Gamzat was winning medals in All-Russian freestyle wrestling and combat sambo tournaments at juniors level. Ultimately, Ismailov was forced to eat humble pie at the hands of the much smaller Gamzat.

Getting bruised and humiliated by a smaller opponent, Ismailov came back home depressed. On seeing her son grim mood, his mother than treated him to a Snickers chocolate bar (which was scarce and expensive back then at Russia) and served him a cup of tea from expensive teaware reserved only for visitors and guests. Much later on Ismailov's life, he met Gamzat Saipudinov again at “Labor Reserves” freestyle wrestling school in Moscow, where both of them became fast friends and held no grudges towards one another.

The splenetic defeat at the hands Gamzat Saipudinov at the aforementioned street brawl, motivated Ismailov to become even more serious in the art of freestyle wrestling, which resulted him in becoming prize winner at various small freestyle wrestling championships of Russia, however he failed to get the notice of Olympic wrestling scouts.

This pursuit for Olympic freestyle wrestling dream, all came crashing down on Ismailov's head, when he was forced by one of the coaches to continue wrestling at tournament with strained back. Ismailov's got his back injury when he was sharing his bed with four other athletes in a bus and was compelled to rest against the bus' glass in a cold weather. The contact of cold resulted in Ismailov getting his back sprained that next day. When he was coerced by the coach to continue wrestling in tournament despite his protest, he expectedly lose.

Bitterly disappointed with how things panned out in that aforesaid wrestling tourney, Ismailov packed his bags and immediately left for Moscow in the year 2000. Ismailov lived with his uncle near the Shchelkovskaya metro station area of Moscow. Due to his sporting setbacks, Ismailov developed depression, and compounded with the fact he could not befriend with local Muscovite's youth due to the language barrier prompted him stay at home and watch sports channels all day.

The lethal combination of inactive lifestyle, which included eating buns with cream and watching TV all day, instantly made Ismailov obese. He weighed a whopping 74 kg for a fourteen year old, back then. In order to combat Ismailov's degrading health, his older brother Ramazan undertook to rectify the situation, under whose leadership Ismailov began to get in shape through regular training on the sports field. He began to dabble in artistic gymnastics in the form of horizontal bar & uneven bars in order to acquire better physical fitness. .

He later enrolled himself in the Labor Reserves school (Russian : «Трудовые резервы»), where he restarted his wrestling career. During Ismailov time in Moscow, he would regularly travel back to Dagestan, in order to train under the guidance of Magomed Isagadzhiev (World Vice-Champion & European Bronze Medalist in Freestyle Wrestling at 74 kg) at School of Higher Sports Excellence (Russian : «школе высшего спортивного мастерства») in Makhachkala.

While training and honing his freestyle wrestling skills, Ismailov held a part-time job as a security guard in Moscow. However, he had adventures even in the capital. A group of five skinheads attacked Ismailov when he was hanging out with his pals in the Okhotny Ryad shopping complex. The untrained skinhead goons missed a few hits, but Ismailov used his freestyle wrestling talents to defeat them without enacting severe beating on any of them.

After Ismailov's adventures in Moscow, he returned to Dagestan, intending to join the army, which first refused to accept him. He had to settle the matter with a bribe of 30,000 rubles. He was then assigned to the Railway Troops of the Russian Armed Forces. During his employment at Railway Troops, he was at first posted at the city of Shatura in Moscow Oblast, then in Dyaghilevo in the rembat, then they transferred to Rybnoye

He is a former combat Sambo World champion, master of sports of Russia of international class. Master of sports in Russian army hand-to-hand combat and freestyle wrestling. He is European Amateur MMA Champion.

Amateur career
He started his sport career as a free wrestler, won bronze medal at Dagestan championship, He is a champion and multiple prizewinner of Moscow tournaments, champion and prizewinner of international tournaments, master of sports in Russia at the Freestyle wrestling.

He learn the military hand-to-hand combat at Russian army and also took part in tournaments: he is a prizewinner of the International memorial tournament army General V. F. Margelov, Master of sports in Army hand-to-hand combat.

After the demobilization he started to go in for combat sambo under his trainer Vladimir Hosiya at Moscow fighting club Golden Team. In 2010 he won the bronze medal at Russian combat sambo championship, and won the gold the next year, won at the Rinat Sadikov memorial championship. In 2012 he won the Combat sambo World championship (by the version of International sambo federation) — for which he was awarded as the «Master of sports in Russia, International class».

Professional career
After a 3-0 amateur MMA career, he made his professional debut in mixed martial arts in March 2011, a win via submission in the second round. At first he performed at large Russian fight organization M-1 Global, where he participated in 5 fights, 4 wins — was defeated only by a student of Fedor Emenlianeko, Anatoly Tokov, by whom he was caught on the reverse knot of the elbow in the 1st round and had to capitulate. After the fight, Tokov tried to hug Ismailov, which Dagestani didn't reciprocrated. It was later reported that Ismailov trashed his locker room in frustration of losing the fight.

In 2012 he took part in the first ever Russian MMA championship, which he won in the light heavyweight category, in the Final he defeated Rashid Yusupov.

In 2014—2017 he participated in small promotional fights, winning almost all of them, except the match against French fighter Xavier Fupa-Pokam at the 100% Fight 20 in France. The referees separate solution was controversial.

Since 2018 he cooperates with Russian organization Fight Nights Global. He won by knockout in the short notice match against Brazilian fighter Ildemar Alcantara in the 1st round.

In the autumn of 2018 he matched in the main fight of the night against Vladimir Mineev. The fight lasted all 5 rounds and ended by draw in separate solution.

Personal life
Ismailov's father, Gasan Abdulaevich had a background in the sport of boxing; while Ismailov's older brother Ramazan, was master of sports in both kickboxing & boxing, had won medals at European level in Kickboxing. Ramazan, Islamilov's older brother, also serves as his striking coach in MMA competition. He was instrumental in improving Ismailov stand up game.

He is currently married with woman, with him whom he has daughter named Safiya, who was born in 2016. Ismailov's daughter was named after a woman named Safiya, who was a strong, mythic female warrior from old fables. On Instagram, he occasionally posts pictures of his daughter (Safiya) for his followers to see. Even though Ismailov is married, he does not wear a ring or post joint photos with his wife on social media platform.

He studied at the Russian University of Cooperation (Российского университета кооперации) in Mytishchi, Moscow Oblast, Russia. Coincidentally, Russian University of Cooperation is place, where Ismailov's MMA gym Golden Team is located at. Golden Team was originally founded by Ismailov's old combat sambo coach, Vladimir Otarovich Hosiya, who also serves as his main MMA coach.

The origin of Ismailov nickname Bald Predator came from his father Gasan Abdulaevich, who used call his son (Ismailov) Khumor (хъумор) which means predator in the Avar language. The other nickname Ismailov has used over his combat sports career is Cobra.

Ismailov has a popular YouTube channel, which he opened on 2019, where he vlogs about his combat life, does BTS (behind-the-scenes) of MMA events and conducts face-to-face interview with notable fighters like Zabit Magomedsharipov, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Alexander Shlemenko, Eduard Vartanyan & Alexander Emelianenko.

Achievements
2007 Freestyle Wrestling Championship, Kaspiysk (−86 kg)

2008 Freestyle Wrestling Championship, Moscow (−86 kg)

2008 International Memorial Tournament of Army General V.F. Margelov in ARB, Yekaterinburg (−88 kg)

2010 Combat Sambo Championship, Moscow (−90 kg)

2011 Rinat Sadykov Memorial Combat Sambo Championship, Kazan (−90 kg)

2012 XVII World Combat Sambo Championship, Moscow (−90 kg)

2012 Russian MMA Union Championship, Moscow (−93 kg)

2012 WMMAA European Championship, Saint Petersburg (−93 kg)