Is Anya Tatranamov a real MMA fighter? Fact check on the rumored Dagestani female athlete

MMA fans were excited by the news that surfaced on the internet that a female MMA fighter named Anya Tatranamov is set to make her UFC debut at UFC 288.

Dagestani MMA fighters have taken the sport by storm and several dominant fighters from the region have emerged as champions across various MMA organizations.

Khabib Nurmagomedov paved the way for the current crop of elite Dagestani mixed martial artists. Although the region has emerged as a powerhouse in MMA, it still has a dearth of female representation in combat sports.

Anya 'Formel' Tatranamov, a female MMA fighter from Dagestan, will make her UFC debut at UFC 288 according to a Twitter user with the handle @RanboGG. The UFC's failure to advertise the signing of a female fighter from the region raised suspicions that the report was bogus.

It has been established through research that Anya Tatranamov is a fictitious female Dagestani competitor. The statistics regarding her record (15-0), which was presented as unblemished, are false and the information that she competes in the flyweight division, are all fictitious. According to OpenSea, an American online marketplace for non-fungible tokens, this person does not exist in reality.

Anya Tatranamov- fictitious Dagestani female MMA competitor

Since Dagestani MMA fighters have not spoken positively about female participation in MMA, it might be suspected that the story was false. Islam Makhachev's shocking comment on the back-and-forth bout between Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 248, in which he stated that this is not a female sport, is illustrative of this stance.

Khabib Nurmagomedov's MMA promotion, the Eagle Fighting Championship, does not include a women's division because, according to Dagestani, women's MMA lacks viable contenders.

---

Fans react to the news of fictional Dagestani fighter Anya Tatranamov making her UFC debut

MMA fans were ecstatic at the prospect of seeing Anya Tatranamov, a female fighter from Dagestan, compete in the UFC. Unfortunately, it has since come to light that the rumors were false, but funnily enough, several fans fell prey to it.

Former Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields tried to make sense of how women from the region were allowed to train in MMA:

"They let women train? The men won't train with women."

Another fan realizing that the reports are false, sarcastically wrote:

"I think she will be champion. I watched a couple fights of Anya Tatranamov. She is legit with world class cardio and grappling. She is a monster."

Another fan questioned:

"We’re getting a female Khabib?"

Check out some of the best reactions below: