Fascinating read as always. I read an interesting tidbit that, when the Wagner group were marching on Moscow (this whole thing might just be a big rouse, though) Chechen fighters were sent to guard the city and Putin. If there were a Wagner vs. Kadyrov element in a Russian civil war (again, if the Wagner Rebellion stuff is to be believed) there would be plenty of combat sports tie ins to cover there.
When I started writing this article, Prigozhin had not yet called off his mutiny. My assumption at the time was that we would eventually see some sort of showdown between Kadyrov's Akhmat battalion and the Wagner mercenaries. And yes, that would have been the most significant combat sports tie-in throughout the war to date, and there have been a lot!
Russian commentators have included Wagner founder Dmitri Uykin in their rants about the Convoy for Justice, but not the West. Utkin is a pagan Neo Nazi who, like the Azov , uses this profile to intimidate. Utkin got involved in the spat between Delimkhanov and Prigozhin, and Delimkhanov was then hit, with Kadyrov pleading with Ukraine for information about his comrade before dismissing the hit as fake.( Ibrahimov was involved in an assault on a Russian journalist and her camera man in Melitopol last January. ) Utkin must have authorized the rebellion , and he may even have been playing a double deck of cards ?!
Interestingly, Denis Kapustin—the Russian neo-Nazi MMA fighter I referenced near the end of this piece—used to run the Azov's MMA organization out of the basement of a restaurant called Reconquista (yes, named after the conquests against the Moors) in Kyiv. It got shut down in 2019.
Fascinating read as always. I read an interesting tidbit that, when the Wagner group were marching on Moscow (this whole thing might just be a big rouse, though) Chechen fighters were sent to guard the city and Putin. If there were a Wagner vs. Kadyrov element in a Russian civil war (again, if the Wagner Rebellion stuff is to be believed) there would be plenty of combat sports tie ins to cover there.
When I started writing this article, Prigozhin had not yet called off his mutiny. My assumption at the time was that we would eventually see some sort of showdown between Kadyrov's Akhmat battalion and the Wagner mercenaries. And yes, that would have been the most significant combat sports tie-in throughout the war to date, and there have been a lot!
Super interesting, Karin! Shared (many times)
Thank you, Roger—I appreciate you sharing the article!
MMA and mercenaries? Why am I not surprised?
MMA is truly the most absurd sport I have ever reported on.
Russian commentators have included Wagner founder Dmitri Uykin in their rants about the Convoy for Justice, but not the West. Utkin is a pagan Neo Nazi who, like the Azov , uses this profile to intimidate. Utkin got involved in the spat between Delimkhanov and Prigozhin, and Delimkhanov was then hit, with Kadyrov pleading with Ukraine for information about his comrade before dismissing the hit as fake.( Ibrahimov was involved in an assault on a Russian journalist and her camera man in Melitopol last January. ) Utkin must have authorized the rebellion , and he may even have been playing a double deck of cards ?!
Feels like a common trend among “militias,” aren’t many of the questionably aligned AZOV people also found in dubious MMA circles?
Interestingly, Denis Kapustin—the Russian neo-Nazi MMA fighter I referenced near the end of this piece—used to run the Azov's MMA organization out of the basement of a restaurant called Reconquista (yes, named after the conquests against the Moors) in Kyiv. It got shut down in 2019.
Great work, Karim!