UFC veteran Zabit Magomedsharipov has just signed a contract with ACBJJ and will be making his first professional combat sports appearance in over 6 years. It’s been a very long time since anyone has seen the Dagestani fighter competing, but at one point in time he was one of the top prospects in MMA. Although Magomedsharipov actually came from a freestyle wrestling background originally, he spent years honing his striking skills by practicing Sanda. That’s what made him such a well-rounded and unorthodox fighter, and it was under his Sanda instructor that he decided to make the transition to MMA in 2012.
Magomedsharipov lost just one of his seven fights on the regional MMA circuit in Russia and Ukraine; having all of them within the space of just 18 months. That was when he first drew the attention of ACB and he competed in some of their earliest MMA events, racking up a 6-0 record under their banner and becoming their inaugural featherweight champion. He then made his UFC debut in 2017 and over the course of two years he beat all six of his opponents to extend his record to 18-1. He was unable to compete for a while due to health issues but in 2021 he announced that he was retiring from MMA entirely; choosing to focus on coaching his younger brother Khasan instead.
He is undoubtedly one of the biggest ‘what-if’ fighters in MMA history as his ceiling was never found and he easily could have gone on to become a champion. Instead, fans have had to settle for seeing him in his brother Khasan’s corner at PFL events as he continues his undefeated career. That’s all about to change though, as Magomedsharipov is now going to be making his professional grappling debut at an unconfirmed ACBJJ event in 2026. It’s not the same as MMA of course but Magomedsharipov displayed some incredible grappling during his time in the sport and it’ll be interesting to see how he looks after spending so long out of action.
ACBJJ announced the news that they had signed Zabit Magomedsharipov in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
