“It’s my reality” - Murad Ramazanov feels his early MMA opponents ducked him after amateur success

At ONE on Prime Video 5, Murad Ramazanov faces the biggest fight of his career to date. On December 2, he will welcome Roberto Soldic to ONE Championship in a bout that will have a lot of eyes on it.

After going 3-0 inside the circle, Ramazanov has laid his claim as the number one welterweight contender in the division. His ranking has earned him the opportunity to face the debuting Soldic, who enters ONE Championship with a ton of hype around him.

For the Russian, he is just happy to be facing high-level opposition after he claimed that he was ducked by opponents in the early days of his career.

In an interview with ONE Championship, the undefeated Dagestani said:

“When I was 21, after I won all my amateur titles, I fought in the PROFC league against a very experienced fighter, Ruslan Khaskhanov, and finished him early. I then asked every Russian league to give me strong opponents - I did not want a long-term contract, I just wanted to fight their best guys. For some reason, many of my opponents have been getting injured just days before our scheduled fight.”

He added:

“I don't know if they have been trying to dodge fights, but it’s my reality. I am proud of winning Fedor Emelianenko's MMA Championship of Russia, organized by the Russian MMA Union - the strongest fighters from all Russian leagues fought there. After that victory, people in the business started taking me seriously. Later, I won the World MMA Championship in Macau.”

Murad Ramazanov will face Roberto Soldic on the lead card of ONE on Prime Video 5, which will air live and free for North American viewers with a Prime subscription.

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“He knew how to find a key to teach us”- Murad Ramazanov says wrestling coach led him back to competition

Undefeated welterweight contender Murad Ramazanov credits his wrestling coach with giving him the push that he needed to carry out his career in MMA.

As he prepares for the biggest fight of his career to date at ONE on Prime Video 5 on December 2, the Dagestani wrestler has been reflecting on his early days in competition.

Before he started down the path that he is on today, Murad Ramazanov was competing in boxing competitions in Dagestan and achieving a lot of success. As he started to lose interest in the sport, he found wrestling, which changed everything:

He told ONE Championship:

“I was already good at boxing when I started wrestling. I won the city championship in an open boxing tournament. However, we were kids, coached as if we were adults. It was all very serious, not playful, so I got bored.”

Murad Ramazanov added:

“Wrestling classes were completely different. My new coach, Ponomarev, knew how to explain everything in a semi-playful way. He knew how to find a key to teach us. When I lost my enthusiasm after a week of training, he called me and persuaded me somehow to start training seriously, which I did.”