How is Khabib viewed in Russia?

[JAL]

I guess they missed the 10 years that Fedor ruled the HW in mma then.

MMA was a bush league back then.. MMA is way bigger nowdays

 

[Serbinator85]

Mixed reaction from what I've seen. Most of Khabib's love comes from Muslims - not Russians. I'd even go as far as to say Russia was cheering on Conor more than Khabib for their fight. Russia seems very regional as far as to who they root for. I've even seen some Russians not root for Fedor since his roots are Ukrainian.

Yes his father is Ukrainian roots wasnt a problem until the last 10 years. But Ukranians Generally hate russians a lot especially western Ukraine, it has nothing to do with religion these days. 90% of Russians and Ukrainians are agnostic or atheist, and if khabib was a Christian it would not matter shit because Russians dont like Georgians or Armenias even though they are Christians it’s different culture different languages they never considered you one of your own

 

[moosaev]

"Aslan Maskhadov's government was unable to rebuild the region or to prevent a number of warlords from taking effective control. The relationship between the government and radicals deteriorated. In March 1999, Maskhadov closed down the Chechen parliament and introduced aspects of Sharia law. Despite this concession, extremists such as Shamil Basayev and the Saudi-born Islamist Ibn Al-Khattab continued to undermine the Maskhadov government. In April 1998, the group publicly declared that its long-term aim was the creation of a union of Chechnya and Dagestan under Islamic rule and the expulsion of Russians from the entire Caucasian Region."

I'm not gonna teach you history or discuss if this shit was right or wrong because I literally couldn't care less about russian politics bruh. I was just telling it how it is, I didn't judge any faction.
I just said lots of Russians hate Chechens/Dagestanis because of terror attacks and the war. No judgement intended. It's probably the same vice-versa.

Terror that the FSB did and blamed on the Chechens. Russians have no place to whine about chechens and Dagestanis, they’ve taken their land, wtf do you expect them to do? lol.

 

[MoreKane]

is Fedor full Ukranian?

 

[shoorik1987]

Yes his father is Ukrainian roots wasnt a problem until the last 10 years. But Ukranians Generally hate russians a lot especially western Ukraine, it has nothing to do with religion these days. 90% of Russians and Ukrainians are agnostic or atheist, and if khabib was a Christian it would not matter shit because Russians dont like Georgians or Armenias even though they are Christians it’s different culture different languages they never considered you one of your own

Ukrainian roots still isn't a problem. If you look, Ukrainians closed the borders to Russian males between 18-60, Russia did not do the same. Ukrainians can still come to Russia. Same with Georgia.

Armenians and Russians have great relationship.

 

[matheuss92]

Khabib is bigger than MMA tho lol.. dude is one of the biggest athlete in the world and when ever everyone sees him and listen to his accent they say 'wow these russian guys are tough mothafuckers' when in reality its the dagestanis that are tough lol..

Nobody outside the MMA world knows him. People gotta understand that Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and in a lesser level Lebron James are the so called "biggest athetes". Khabin Nurmagomedov wouldnt be known by 70-75% of the people you ask about.

 

[Raffen]

If you hate them, why doing everything to keep them under Russian state lmao?

High lvl hypocrisy here, legit start wars to not let them be independent, but hate them and don't want them at the same time.

Russia wanted them, now they deal with it.

Reminds me of corsica and France.

Lmao never understood this.

They literally fought wars for independence for centuries. But the Russians insisted they stay. Its not like there's oil or anything there. I understand in the past it was the gateway to the middle east/ottoman, so useful militarily. But that's irrelevant nowadays.

These ruskies cant complain. They obviously loved the Caucasus lot so much they were willing to give their lives to keep them.

 

[The Chosen]

stupid question its like saying how is mike tyson viewed in america

Not really, there was a lot of ethnic tensions in Russia in the 90s and 2000s, mostly against Chechens though, but it was against all Caucasians

 

[Bob Sapp]

Not that it is proof that he is respected by Slavic Russians, but a friend of mine who is 2nd generation Russian American posted on her Facebook how happy she and her family were that Khabib won.

iirc when Khabib fought Conor it was kinda split now that Khabib is a dominant “Russian” Champ Im sure they'll jump on his bandwagon now.

 

[K-Town Punk]

Can only speak for myself as someone of Slavic Russian descent - to me he's as Russian as any Slavic Russian, Tatar Russian or any other ethnicity that's part of the country. Differentiation between the groups is still very much a topic in Russia, sadly, but I don't see the point in it. Gotta give Khabib credit there, he never made a fuss out of having the Russian flag next to his name or referring to himself as Russian, as far as I know, so didn't do anything to stir such unnecessary conflicts further.

That being said, I never cheer for Khabib or hope he wins when he fights, just cause I don't like him and his team. Could fight under any flag he wants and that wouldn't change my opinion one bit. Not even when a guy like Gaethje tries to turn it into a Russia vs USA narrative before their fight, I couldn't care less about stuff like that. And I couldn't take credit for another man's achievements even if I desperately wanted to. So all in all, I do consider Khabib Russian, but I wouldn't say stuff like "he's one of us." One of us is someone I like to be associated with.

 

[Rocket Punch]

Lmao never understood this.

They literally fought wars for independence for centuries. But the Russians insisted they stay. Its not like there's oil or anything there. I understand in the past it was the gateway to the middle east/ottoman, so useful militarily. But that's irrelevant nowadays.

These ruskies cant complain. They obviously loved the Caucasus lot so much they were willing to give their lives to keep them.

i dont know why they invaded them in the past, and tbh that's quite irrelevant now anyways. these days though, the problem in that region is the Saudi backed islamic extremism. you don't want an islamic state on your borders, and i think most Dagestanis don't want to be invaded by those nutjobs either. weaker countries can fall prey to that shit easily, but since Dagestan is part of Russia, that takeover could never happen.

 

[kaneqc]

For Russians who remember 90s Caucasus is linked to terrorism, insurgencies and organized crime. Caucasus is also one of the most depressed regions of Russia with high unemployment and poverty rate. People from Caucasus are widely thought to have archaic herd mentality, be agressive and short tempered, while also being sneaky and back-stabbing.

As a none-Russian, I've heard similar things like that as well. Interestingly, I went to a BJJ match a few years ago in Shanghai, and there were a whole bunch of Caucasus people here. My teammate competed against one of them whose name is Ali. According my Shanghai friends these Caucasus people had been settling in the city for quite a while. Personally I had no ideal how they ended up there.

 

[matheuss92]

I don't think they really differentiate. Just like here some people can't differentiate between moderate Muslims from Iran or fundamentalists from Afghanistan.
Tough topic, haven't got that much insight into the russian perspective but I'm sure most of the hate going towards Chechnya and Dagestan turned into plain and undifferentiated hate for Muslims because of those terror acts and wars.

And yeah, I actually agree with you there. I have a hilarious statistic from Korea. Check this out:
21,2% of koreans voted for "Attack Japan" with no apparent reason LMAO.

Lol more fake news. That image is totally fake. And yes, you are a racist pos. Ive seen enough of your posts to be sure

 

[The Chosen]

True, yet they get their shit pushed in 1vs 1 against caucasus people, they fear chechen and dagestani and either gang up on them, police intervenes or they get cucked just like in the video

Chechens and Dagestanis are white

 

[The Chosen]

Don't agree, his father clearly looks arab or even turkish. Khabib's looks tend more towards white russian in comparison, making me believe his mother is part russian atleast.

I always thought that too, Khabib could pass as European

 

[Grapplefest]

I always thought that too, Khabib could pass as European

The majority of Dagestanis/Chechens could pass in southeastern Europe if they changed their hairstyle. That doesn't mean they have Russian blood.

 

[shoorik1987]

Feel weird to write about this at Sherdog. But I just read so much Bullshit, it's hard to keep quiet

About different ethnic groups:

You can not just put all people in caucasus into one pile, there are differences between different groups. Within Dagestan alone the are 20 major ethnic groups who more or less dislike each other. They all speak different languages and there are sunis, shias, christians and even freakin' mountain jews there.

Republic of Dagestan was created 1921 by the soviet as an administrative region, so there is no historic country of Dagestan. Before Russia came to Dagestan, there was no national state there, but a bunch of warring tribes. The society was barely at feudal level of development at that point in time.

When it comes to relations with Russia they are also different between different ethnic groups. Chechens had an independence war recently, which they lost and some of those warbands turned to crime and terrorism instead. So the mutual dislike is there, even though I have met plenty of Chechen both in Russia and abroad and you don't notice it on 1 v 1 relations. Kadyrov is the compromise, he keeps order Chechniya in exchange for money and high level of autonomy within Russia.

When it comes to for instance Ossetians, they are loyal towards Russia. Dagestan is loyal towards Russia, because without Russia Dagestan will go back to tribal warfare. The only thing keeping Dagestan together is Russia.

During the Chechen wars, Chenchniya at one point declared Emirate of Caucasus and claimed all muslim republics of Caucasus. First place rebels/terrorists (depends on who's side you're on) went into was Dagestan. Dagestanis met them with force and fought them back, because they did not want to be part of Caucasus emirate under Chechens.

Russians are nationalistic, yes. Nationalism is strong among all nationalities, Chechens i feel are very nationalistic, they see themselves superior to everyone else. There is also prejudice between different groups in caucasus towards each other. Only a couple of month ago there was almost an armed conflict between Chechniya and Dagestan over a border dispute. Ingushetia and Chechniya are having border issues all the time, even though they are allmost the same people.

It's all very complicated. Way to complicated for Sherdog.

 

[shoorik1987]

The majority of Dagestanis/Chechens could pass in southeastern Europe if they changed their hairstyle. That doesn't mean they have Russian blood.

Many of them do. Both of Khabib's uncles married to Ukrainian women.
During Soviet days intermarriage was common, because religion didn't play an important role.

 

[Arbus]

We definitely don't see him as one of our own. And he doesn't see himself as such hence his refusal to carry the flag. He is mostly popular with people from Caucasus and immigrants from ex-Soviet Central Asia. Hardcore Russian MMA fans often don't like him for being hypocritical and thuggish. They also tend to consider Gaethje fight fixed.

For being thuggish? I thought russian men like all macho bullshit.

 

[Grapplefest]

Many of them do. Both of Khabib's uncles married to Ukrainian women.
During Soviet days intermarriage was common, because religion didn't play an important role.

Source on Khabib's uncles marrying Ukrainian women? That's pretty interesting, might explain why Khabib's cousin Muhammad with the Ukraine jacket looks like Alex Ovechkin, is he half Ukrainian?