The sport of mixed martial arts has seen some huge fights in its course of history, bearing skyrocketed anticipations and hype but nothing matched that of the Hasbulla Magomedov vs Abdu Rozik.
The sad news is, the fight is now reportedly off.
Hasbulla demanded over $200k out of Rozik fight, and negotiations have gone south
Dagestani social media star Hasbulla Magomedov and Kazakh rapper Abdu Rozik both came to the limelight in the MMA fandom after a fight between them was announced a couple of months ago, which was promoted by Asxab Tamaev.
With the stupendous hype that came with the fight, both Hasbulla and Rozik became prominent names in the MMA circuit, with ‘Mini Khabib’ Hasbulla taking the limelight as the biggest celebrity on the internet and garnering attention from everyone, even Khabib himself as well as Henry Cejudo.
Even though both fighters were keeping their fanbase busy with their regular social media clips, the fight was reaching no confirmation regarding a date and a venue, but Tamaev, aka the ‘Russian KGB Hulk’ had always assured that the fight was still on.
Unfortunately, the situation is now the polar opposite. According to Tamaev, negotiations for the fight has fallen apart after Hasbulla demanded 20 million rubles ($268k) from the fight, more than double of the $95k he was offered initially, and the Makhachkala-born superstar’s parents barred him from taking part in the bout.
On the other hand, it was reported that Rozik demanded not a single penny and was ready to fight for free.
As far as the situation is looking right now, a promoter needs to step in and pay up Hasbulla’s demands. Otherwise, the world will miss out on the biggest mixed martial arts fight of all time.
The netizens have expressed disbelief over the fight not happening, and even multi promotion MMA champion Ben Askren stepped in with the public demand of getting a promoter for the fight.
“Most anticipated fight of 2021. Promoter needs to pay up!” Askren tweeted.
While our hearts sink in sadness to not see such a historic event on the verge of not taking place, Hasbulla vs Rozik was riddled with hurdles right from the get go. Back in May, the the Dwarf Athletic Association of Russia stepped in with their opinions against the fight happening.
“It’s not even like a show fight — they get paid a lot of money and it’s a show to make people laugh,” Uliana Podpalnaya, the chief of Russia’s Dwarf Athletic Association, spoke to Gazeta.ru, “this is unethical, wrong, from my point of view. It seems to be that only on the one hand it can be correct and beautiful — if martial arts among small people are made a Paralympic sport.“
