Home of one of the best MMA fighters of all times, Russia holds the Bellator heavyweight belt with Vitaly Minakov and is close to getting the UFC lightweight gold with Khabib Nurmagomedov. On the other side of the world, Timofey Nastyukhin and Marat Gafurov want to take over ONE Championship.
Nastyukhin and Gafurov are scheduled to compete at Friday’s ONE 27 in Kallang, Singapore, against Robert Lisita and Ev Ting, respectively, and have the same goal on their minds.
"I am working towards it," Nastyukhin said of being the first Russian to win a title at ONE Championship, "and I want to someday be champion.