Undefeated Dagestani fighter Ibragim Ibragimov makes his debut on one of the world’s biggest promotions tonight.
The 6-0 Dagestan-born Brit faces Welsh MMA veteran Josh Reed on the undercard of boxing champion Savannah Marshall’s debut in the PFL Smart Cage. He is one of four boys, with his three brothers all on the books at Manchester United.
Ibragimov is already plotting his ascent through the ranks within MMA’s number two promotion, and has designs on winning their European series next year. He will then move into the global season, which comes with a $1million prize.
Ibragim Ibragimov plots out $1million world title route in PFL
The 20-year-old MMA prospect has won his first six fights with relative ease, only getting to the final bell once in an otherwise flawless run. This attracted the attention of PFL, who landed his signature and will nurture his development as a young fighter.
But he wants to speed through the ranks, and has plans to become champion of the promotion’s global season in short order. He has been training with the sport’s elite including Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev, and plans to put his name on that list.
“As we all know, PFL is the fastest-growing promotion right now,” he told Bloody Elbow in an exclusive chat. “So I had different options but we just put everything down with my coaches, spoke to each other and we did the right move. Now I’m here in PFL, ready to fight, it’s fight week and we’re on.
“I want to stay active, my managers and everything were struggling to get me a fight for so long, but now I’m at PFL so they’ll be giving me fights and I’ll be active. I’m going to win this fight and I’m going to get into the PFL European Grand Prix.
“I’m going to first get that belt and then from there we go into the global championship, that’s the plan. I’m better than all of these guys, I’m really sure they’re not better than me because of the way I’m training. I’m here to win only and I am 100 per cent going to be a world champion.”
Ibragim Ibragimov’s Manchester United player brother ‘still beats him up’
Despite being the eldest brother and signing with one of the best promotions in the world, there’s a chance that Ibragim Ibragimov may not even be the best athlete in his family. His three brothers Gazik, Amir and Muhammad are all signed up at Manchester United.
Amir has even played for England at the youth level, and is known as a top prospect, while the other siblings are coming through the youth setup at Carrington. Their father was a high-level wrestler, and insisted that they pursue sport at the highest level when they moved from Dagestan to the UK.
“We moved to the UK in 2017,” he explained. “My dad wanted a better life for me and my brothers so we moved here and by will of God we find ourselves in the good position that we are now; they’re playing for Manchester United and I’m here signed with PFL, we’re just living!
“My dad was a very good athlete, he did wrestling and stuff like that, he showed us a lot of things in life. He never drank and never smoked, he was a good example for us and probably that’s why we’re here, it’s in our genes.”
16-year-old Amir is a bright talent in the United youth setup, and his older brother reckons he could have pursued fighting if he wanted to. “He still beats me up,” Ibragim joked. “When we’re training at the house doing push-ups he’s very competitive.
“A couple of years ago even he’d go running and he’d beat us up, he’s very competitive. He doesn’t like losing and that’s a good thing in our family, we have a big competitiveness and we’re always trying to win which helps us to get better.
“My dad always wanted me to be a wrestler and for my brothers to play football. We always did the two sports, and as you can see where we are I’m doing MMA so I had to learn grappling as well and put everything together. Now I just bring everything to MMA while they play football.”
Ibragim Ibragimov faces Josh Reed at PFL Newcastle on Saturday June 8. Tickets are available on Ticketmaster