Oleg Taktarov

Oleg Nikolaevich Taktarov is a retired Russian mixed martial artist and actor. He is a practitioner of Sambo and Judo and has competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Pride Fighting Championships. Taktarov was the UFCtournament champion and holds notable wins over Marco Ruas, Tank Abbott, Mark Kerr, and Anthony Macias. Taktarov is known for being exceptionally calm during fights and for using a variety of rarely seen, acrobatic Sambo takedowns. All of Taktarovs losses were by knockout or decision he was never submitted in an MMA fight.

Taktarov was born in the closed city Arzamas16 , USSR, before his family moved to Gorky, an industrial centre of Russia. Olegs father, a construction worker, wanted his son to become involved in sport, and so took him to a gymnasium at the nearby city of Sarov, with the intention of enrolling Oleg in ice hockey or weightlifting. But the twelveyearold Taktarov had other ideas after observing athletes practicing judo. At first it appeared his father would have his way because the Sarov judo division had a policy of not accepting people from outside their city, but the instructor was impressed by the bright and wellmannered Oleg, and took him under his wing. I liked judo and stuck with it. Then I found that there were similarities between judo and sambo , and as Sarov was the only Sambo gymnasium specializing in leg locks, I decided to compete in both styles, says Taktarov.

Source: Wikipedia