Fast facts
- Division: Light heavyweight (UFC)
- Record: 16-2
- Nationality: Russia
- Team/gym: K Dojo Warrior Tribe
- Notable wins: Aleksandar Rakić, Alonzo Menifield, Devin Clark, Dustin Jacoby, André Muniz, Guto Inocente and Mohammad Fakhreddine (Brave CF openweight tournament)
The first fight took 10 seconds. On February 13, 2010, at a ProFC event called Union Nation Cup 5, a 20-year-old from Kabardino-Balkaria named Azamat Murzakanov walked out and knocked out Anzor Khakimov before most of the room had settled into their seats. It would be more than 16 years before anyone beat him.
That streak ended in April. Then, on October 24 in Abu Dhabi, it happened again, faster and worse. Two losses in six months is a hard thing to process for a man who had never felt one, and it makes this a good moment to look at where he came from, because the road to the UFC light heavyweight rankings was longer and stranger for him than for almost anyone else in the top 15.
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A village, a uniform, a coach
Murzakanov was born April 12, 1989, in Kyzburun III, a village in Kabardino-Balkaria that now goes by the name Dygulybgey. He finished high school in 2006 and went into Russia’s internal troops. After he was demobilized, he took a job with SOBR, the special rapid response unit of the Interior Ministry for the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic.
That job is where he met Khachim Mamkhegov, an honored trainer of Russia in hand-to-hand combat, and the coach who built him. Under Mamkhegov, Murzakanov won multiple Russian national titles in hand-to-hand combat, three world championships, and gold at both the European and Asian championships, and he earned the rank of honored master of sports. Mamkhegov’s name almost never comes up on a UFC broadcast. It should. Everything you’ve seen from Murzakanov in the Octagon (the patience, the sudden violence, the comfort in grappling exchanges) traces back to a police unit’s training room and a coach who saw something in a young officer.
Hand-to-hand combat runs in the family. His younger brother, Marat, is also a master of sports in the discipline and serves in the FSB’s border troops.
The slow years
After that 10-second debut, Murzakanov disappeared from the sport for more than five years, stepping away for work and studies. He came back in June 2015 with a knockout at ROC 51, then went to Poland that October and won a unanimous decision at Envio Fight Night.
In 2016 he fought three times and finished everyone. He stopped an opponent with strikes at Global Proving Ground 24 in May, submitted Bohdan Bulakh in July, and in October knocked out André Muniz, who had won eight straight. In April 2017 he finished Georgy Sakaev quickly at ACB 57 in Absolute Championship Akhmat.
The UFC signed him and booked him against Joachim Christensen for June 25, 2017. He was pulled from the card on June 8, and it later came out that he had failed a USADA test, with boldenone metabolites in his sample. He was suspended two years starting September 2, 2017.
What he did next tells you a lot. In late 2019 he applied for a Brave CF openweight tournament with $100,000 on the line, was selected, and on November 15 at Brave CF 29 he wrestled his way past Guto Inocente over three rounds in the semifinal before knocking out Mohammad Fakhreddine in the first round to win the whole thing. Openweight, one night, two fights, a former SOBR officer with a long layoff behind him. Then came Dana White’s Contender Series 37 on August 31, 2021, a first-round finish of Matheus Scheffel, and the UFC contract he had lost four years earlier.
The Professional in the Octagon
Even getting into the cage was a fight. His first scheduled UFC opponent, Marcin Prachnio, fell through over visa issues. His second, Philipe Lins, withdrew, and the replacement, Jared Vanderaa, wasn’t medically cleared after weigh-ins.
When Murzakanov finally debuted on March 12, 2022, against Tafon Nchukwi at UFC Fight Night 203, he was losing most of the fight. Then in Round 3 he landed a flying knee and Nchukwi went out. Performance of the Night. That fight is the one I’d show anyone who wants to understand him: he doesn’t need to be winning to end you.
He stopped Devin Clark in Round 3 in August 2022 and outpointed Dustin Jacoby in April 2023. Then the momentum stalled. He pulled out of a Volkan Oezdemir fight in 2023 and was removed from a Khalil Rountree Jr. bout that December with symptoms related to pneumonia. He came back in August 2024 and knocked out Alonzo Menifield in the second round for his second Performance of the Night bonus.
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A UFC 309 booking with Nikita Krylov fell apart when he withdrew, and he was later suspended by CSAD from November 1, 2024, to May 1, 2025, after testing positive for LGD-4033 metabolites. That’s two doping suspensions in a career, and it belongs in any honest account of who he is.
He returned at UFC 316 in June 2025 against Brendson Ribeiro, a replacement for an injured Johnny Walker, and got Ribeiro to tap to punches in the first round. That October at UFC 321 he stopped Aleksandar Rakić in Round 1. That was the biggest name of his career, and for a few months he looked like a real problem for anyone in the top 10.
Two head kicks
On April 11, 2026, the day before his 37th birthday, Murzakanov faced former middleweight title challenger Paulo Costa in the co-main event of UFC 327. Costa finished him with a head kick in the third round. It was the first loss of his MMA career.
Six months later at UFC 333, MMA Fighting had him beating Dominick Reyes in its predictions. Instead, Reyes wobbled him with a head kick and dropped him with a left hand in the first round, then followed up with punches until referee Mike Beltran stopped it.
The aftermath turned into a fight about the broadcast. Reyes went after Daniel Cormier’s commentary on a new YouTube series, and his first complaint was that Cormier described Murzakanov switching to southpaw. “He’s a natural southpaw. He fights southpaw every time,” Reyes said. Reyes also described the finish in blunt terms: “He curls into a ball because he’s very hurt.” He credited Beltran for letting the fight play out.
There’s an odd respect in that video. Reyes had studied Murzakanov closely enough to know his stance better than the man calling the fight.
Where he stands
The record now reads 16-2, and both losses came against strikers who found the same target with their feet. Murzakanov is 37, he has fought only twice a year at his busiest stretch in the UFC, and the withdrawals, the illness and the suspension have cost him years he can’t get back. Those are the real stakes for whatever comes next. A fighter who started this late doesn’t have a long runway to rebuild.
I’d still bet on him finding one more run. The flying knee against Nchukwi came when he was down on the cards, and the Brave tournament came after two years away. He has always done his best work after something went wrong.
Wikipedia listed him at No. 14 in the UFC’s light heavyweight rankings as of fight night. When Knockout Daily’s Cagefile data updated on October 28, he had slipped to No. 15, one spot from falling off the list entirely.
