On August 3, as part of the Arena pop-MMA promotion, a fight broke out between Israpil Ramazanov (nicknamed Murad, – approx. socialbites.ca) and Vadim Ivanov.
history of conflict
The newly minted fighters gained popularity in 2021 after the video “Dagestanis threw a taxi driver” on the network, where Ivanov drove Ramazanov. During and after the order, Ramazanov was rude and threatened the driver, making statements that later became memes, then refusing to pay for the trip, as he owed Ivanov more than 400 rubles.
On YouTube, the video quickly went viral, with more than 20 million views in total, and its characters became a part of the pop MMA community. Askhab Tamaev, a Chechen fighter and organizer, had a great interview with Murad and offered him to join the Hype Fighting Championship promotion.
In September 2021, Murad was detained by the police for urinating in the wrong place. After that, “Like” revealed the criminal details of the biography of Israpil Ramazanov.
In 2009, a native of Dagestan was convicted under Articles 131 and 134 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – “Rape” and “Sexual intercourse and other acts of a sexual nature with a person under the age of sixteen.”
He was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison by the court. According to a criminal record posted online, Ramazanov served his sentence from 2008 to 2012.
Murad’s first pop MMA rival was Igor Shved. The Dagestan fighter won by decision of the referee. After some time, Vadim Ivanov went against Shved and, in the opinion of the referees, also defeated the opponent.
The fight between the two characters in the video seemed like a logical solution to the conflict – the taxi driver called Murad the octagon in January, but the fight was arranged only in August.
how was the fight
Murad seemed like the obvious favorite of the match due to his basic freestyle wrestling technique and better physical shape. On the other hand, Ivanov did not do any serious training, which did not appear in the most athletic form before the fight.
The fight was fought according to Muay Thai rules: opponents had to spend three three-minute rounds in the octagon, wrestling on the ground was prohibited, hitting with hands and feet was allowed.
The outcome of the match could have been decided even in the first round – Murad took the center of the cage and dominated, while Vadim Ivanov fought from time to time and often turned his back on the opponent. The referee stopped the match three times and started the countdown.
The physical preparation of the Taxi Driver turned out to be zero – after the first minute, Ivanov’s strength was exhausted and he began to run away from his opponent. Interestingly, a few seconds before the end of the first round, Ivanov even managed to cut off the opponent, but this did not affect the course of the battle.
The fight ended in the second round – after another series of punches, a white towel flew from Ivanov’s corner. The result is an early victory for Ramazanov by technical knockout.
After the end of the fight, Murad said that he did not want to classify himself as a legend.
“I don’t consider myself a legend. Legends are different people. We continue. I would like [попросить прощения]which happened. I really didn’t want to hit it. I just caught it when it hit me. It happened. Everything happens in life, there is nothing terrible.
I have given great tips to taxi drivers before, and I will continue to do so now. Thank you to everyone who watched and followed. As-salamu aleykum to all our children!” Israel Ramazanov said.
Vadim Ivanov was disturbed by the defeat.
“Today I was counting on 80-90 percent to win. I thought I’d fire him. It’s purely sporting interest with experience in this fight. Will I visit Murad in Dagestan after the tournament? I’m not sure, let’s see what happens. Maybe I’ll go, maybe not.
Are you planning further careers in pop MMA? I plan to continue training as normal. This is not like before the fight,” said Ivanov.
Thereupon, the organizers of the fight officially announced that the conflict between Murad and the Taxi Driver was over.