'UFC no longer signing fighters from Dagestan'

Claims that the UFC has quietly stopped signing fighters from Russia's Dagestan region have been circulating persistently, and former UFC champion and MMA legend Demetrious Johnson has now weighed in — saying he has sensed the same shift.

Dagestan first drew serious attention in combat sports through Khabib Nurmagomedov, who retired undefeated with a 29-0 record. Fighters from the region, forged in punishing training environments and armed with suffocating wrestling, have since come to dominate virtually every competition they enter.

Khabib's protégé Islam Makhachev has captured titles in two weight classes and sits atop the pound-for-pound rankings without a loss, while Usman Nurmagomedov is 21-0 competing in the PFL. The region's dominance has grown so pronounced that fans now routinely check whether any Central Asian fighter with a beard is from Dagestan. Fighters from similar cultural backgrounds — the so-called "Stan" countries and other Russian regions with comparable styles — have also seen their stock rise by association.

However, when fighters from a single region come to dominate a sport so thoroughly, a backlash tends to follow. The UFC, which grew out of North American combat sports culture, is widely seen as needing a strong roster of North American and European fighters to maximize its commercial appeal.

Against that backdrop, persistent rumors have emerged that the UFC is deliberately limiting the signing of additional Dagestani fighters in the interest of geographic roster balance. According to a domestic industry source familiar with UFC operations, the promotion tracks gate revenue and broadcast rights income on a country-by-country basis and adjusts the number of fighters from each nation on its roster accordingly.

The UFC has held events in Dagestan, but the scale of those shows has been relatively modest — and by some assessments, the Dagestani contingent on the current roster is already large relative to the market it represents.

MMA legend and former UFC champion Demetrious Johnson recently addressed the rumors in an interview with Georges St-Pierre, saying he had heard the UFC was no longer signing fighters from Dagestan or Russia.

"Look at a guy like Umar Nurmagomedov — he can strike, he can take you down, he can finish with a submission on the ground," Johnson said. "I recently heard they're not bringing them in anymore because they're just too good." His comments were widely seen as lending credibility to the speculation.

On St-Pierre's official social media post carrying the interview, one fan's comment drew widespread agreement with a more blunt explanation: "No, it's because they're too boring. The UFC wants to make money — and they don't want to show Muslims."

It is true that the wrestling-heavy, control-oriented style favored by many Russian and Dagestani fighters tends to produce fewer of the striking exchanges that casual fans want to see. Crowds at UFC events still routinely boo fighters who take the action to the ground.

Some analysts have suggested that dynamic may have influenced Chechen-born Hamzat Chimaev's decision to spend significant time trading strikes rather than wrestling at UFC 328, and Ingush fighter Evloev's (Russia) choice to engage in a stand-up battle with Leron Murphy at a UFC London event.

In the meantime, fighters from the "Stan" nations who find fewer doors open at the UFC are making their mark elsewhere — competing in Japan's Rizin, the US-based PFL, Singapore's ONE Championship, and South Korean promotions Black Combat and Road FC. Whether the UFC will continue to sign such fighters on merit alone, or hold back, remains one of the sport's more closely watched questions.