Anya Tatranamov has MMA Twitter fooled: Fans fall for rumor of first-ever Dagestani female fighter

UFC fans were recently treated to news of the first-ever Dagestani female fighter, Anya Tatranamov. While male fighters from the Republic of Dagestan don't have progressive views on WMMA, Tatranamov was rumoredly set to debut at UFC 288 in May.

A Twitter report by @RanboGG claimed that Tatranamov is an undefeated fighter with a 15-0 record at flyweight and plans to move down to strawweight in the future.

"The first WMMA fighter from Dagestan known as Anya “Formel” Tatranamov is set to make her UFC debut at UFC 288. She is currently undefeated at 15-0 and competes at flyweight but is planning to make the move down to strawweight at some point."

However, some fans questioned the legitimacy of the news based on the lack of an official UFC announcement. As per NFT marketplace OpenSea, Anya 'Formel' Tatranamov is a fictitious Dagestani athlete who doesn't exist in reality. Further research revealed that all of her statistics, including reports of a potential change in weight class, are fictitious.

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MMA Twitter fell for rumors of first-ever Dagestani female fighter Anya Tatranamov

Khabib Nurmagomedov put the Republic of Dagestan on the world MMA map with his dominant UFC lightweight title reign. The region has since continued to produce a plethora of superbly talented fighters, with Nurmagomedov's successor Islam Makhachev being their current star.

However, both Makhachev and 'The Eagle' have held controversial views regarding women's MMA. Hence reports of Anya Tatranamov featuring as the first female Dagestani fighter took MMA Twitter by storm.

Finding the news hard to digest, former Strikeforce champ Jake Shields wrote:

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

Some fans were relieved to see a female fighter from a region that is producing a ton of male talent. @tfergvskebob wrote:

"I’ve literally been saying when is the first female Dagestan fighter coming"

Another fan alluded to the notion of Dana White having a bias toward Dagestani fighters. @xSohp wrote:

"Dana wild obesssion with dagestanis exhibit z"

Some fans expectedly started drawing parallels between the fictitious Anya Tatranamov and UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Others also felt that it would be an apt reply to 'The Eagle,' who previously stated that WMMA simply lacks fighters who are up to the mark.

However, it must be noted that the author of the original tweet seemingly meant it as a joke that did not land with most.