Khabib Nurmagomedov confirms that he is the boy in the video of a nine-year-old wrestling a bear

Not only did Khabib Nurmagomedov wrestle a bear at age 9, it was a “secret video” that was never supposed to see the light of day.

The fast-rising UFC lightweight, who is scheduled to face Brazil’s Rafael dos Anjos in one of the feature fights on the UFC on FOX 11 preliminary card this coming Saturday night, and while his discussion mostly centered around his upcoming opponent and his own preparation, Khabib let it slip that it was actually him in the video footage of a nine-year-old wrestling a chained bear cub.

“Yes, I was. It was a secret video and I do not know how that got on the internet.” Nurmagomedov told Combate.com via a translator. “That was long ago, I almost do not remember, I was a boy at the time.”

The video was one that sparked shock and disgust from a certain segment of the MMA community, but it also garnered a fair bit of admiration for the stone-cold Russian and his unorthodox training regimen. It even warranted a Judo Chop from Coach Mike, who was less than pleased that a child would be placed in this sort of situation.

Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.

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