Kadi Magomedov, an Olympic silver medalist, has become the newest professional fighter in Bellator MMA. Kadi is 28-years-old and a Russian athlete who won the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo by beating four-time NCAA champion Kyle Dake 11-0! Even though he has a silver medal now, he is still competing in wrestling but this time to hopefully get a gold medal at the 2024 Olympics.
Mahamedkhabib Kadimagomedov, known as Magomedov, has been thinking of a future in MMA for a while. But he focused on his wrestling career after winning a silver medal at the Olympics. He told MMA Fighting that this is a great time to join Mixed Martial Arts and fight in the best promotion ever. He is grateful to his manager and Bellator for giving him this chance.
Magomedov, from Dagestan, was competing in the 2020 games but he represented Belarus instead. He beat Dake, who experts thought was going to win, in a shocking turn of events. To make it to the finals, he also beat Frank Chamizo who won an Olympic medal back in 2016. Magomedov says that even with all this success he isn’t leaving wrestling and still plans on competing both in wrestling and MMA.
Magomedov didn’t win in the end and was beaten by the world’s No. 3 wrestler, known as Zaurbek Sidakov. Magomedov also has connections with top MMA fighters such as Khabib Nurmagomedov who is a former UFC champion, and Islam Makhachev who is now the reigning UFC lightweight king. He plans to try his luck in MMA fighting, specifically in the featherweight division.
Magomedov spoke about training with the Nurmagomedov team and their school. He mentioned he has been learning from them for a long time, saying that it is really beneficial.
He does not want to rush things or wait too much. Instead, he wants to do some sparring and wrestling soon because he might be fighting soon.
Magomedov has high hopes that he’ll make a big splash in MMA when he debuts and bring gold back home to Dagestan. He also plans on setting the bar even higher than other athletes by aiming to beat Henry Cejudo’s record. Magomedov says, “I want to be the best at wrestling and MMA. I’m annoyed with Cejudo cause I want to beat his record!”
“I’m thinking about this all week long. I can’t stop thinking about it, even when I go to bed. My dream is really important to me now.”
