Chechen dictator Kadyrov threatens nuclear war ahead of his fighter competing in UFC tonight

Just hours before one of his favorite fighters is scheduled to compete at a UFC event in Las Vegas, Nevada, Ramzan Kadyrov threatened nuclear…

By: Karim Zidan | 8 months ago
Chechen dictator Kadyrov threatens nuclear war ahead of his fighter competing in UFC tonight
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Just hours before one of his favorite fighters is scheduled to compete at a UFC event in Las Vegas, Nevada, Ramzan Kadyrov threatened nuclear war on Ukraine.

The Chechen dictator, routinely accused of orchestrating human rights abuses, took to Telegram on Saturday to condemn Russian military officials for losing the stronghold of Lyman in eastern Ukraine and suggest that Russia use “more drastic measures” in its ongoing invasion.

“In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, such as the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons,” Kadyrov wrote in a post that was viewed approximately 5 million times on Telegram. “It is not necessary to take every decision with an eye on the Western American community – it has already said so and done a lot against us.”

Russia’s defeat in Lyman comes just one day after Putin announced the annexation of four occupied regions of Ukraine. The annexations came in the wake of so-called referendums held by Russia in the illegally occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia—referendums that have been labeled as a “sham” by Western leaders.

Yet despite Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and Kadyrov’s threat of nuclear war, one of the Chechen dictator’s favorite fighters, Maxim Grishin, is scheduled to compete on Saturday’s UFC Vegas 61 show against Philipe Lins.

Grishin competes in the UFC’s light-heavyweight division and is an official representative of Kadyrov’s Akhmat MMA fight club, a state-sponsored combat sports facility that has been placed under sanctions by the U.S. Department of the Treasury for bringing “pride and profit” to Kadyrov. The fight club is operated by Abuzayed Vismuradov, a Kadyrov ally who is considered one of the most powerful men in Chechnya. He was also sanctioned by the U.S. government and later helped oversee the Chechen troops being deployed to fight in Ukraine.

In a statement to The New York Times, the UFC said it had “no contractual relationship or any commercial dealings with Ramzan Kadyrov or any of his family, associates or affiliated companies that have been designated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.” However, the organization continues to feature fighters with clear ties to Kadyrov and his sanctioned fight club.

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About the author
Karim Zidan
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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