Interview with Magomed Suleymanov, head coach of Creative Concepts Martial Arts Team
- How did sport begin for you?
- Father, the USSR master of sports in freestyle wrestling, from childhood made me and my elder brother run cross-country races, and from the age of seven I gave them to the freestyle wrestling section in Makhachkala. But, in general, there is nothing special here: almost all the guys in Makhachkala once engaged in wrestling.
- The son of the freestyle wrestler must have achieved success in the fight?
- I didn’t speak clearly in wrestling. After some time, karate fashion overwhelmed everyone, and I devoted several years to this sport. And at the age of 15 he already switched to Wushu Sanda. Then all these styles only began to appear, each time it was interesting to try yourself in a new form of martial arts.
- The word "wushu" for many means a sport more like gymnastics than martial arts ...
- Wushu-sanda is different, it is a tough contact sport. Unlike ordinary Wushu, this is an applied form of martial arts. Wushu sanda fighters, as a rule, successfully perform in fights without rules, it is enough to recall Bozigit Ataev.
- How did your sports career in Wushu Sanda develop?
- It was in Wushu Sanda that I began to make quick progress. First won the Makhachkala Wushu Sanda Championship. Then in 1996 he became the champion of Dagestan and won the Russian Championship among juniors. In the same year he won the first International Youth Wushu Sanda Tournament in Moscow. In 1997, I took second place in the Russian Championship.
- How did you train then?- I studied with Ramazan Ramazanov, three-time world champion in Wushu-sand, world champion according to DRAKA in the USA. They trained twice a day in groups of 50 people. Mandatory were running along the sea and swimming in the morning, and cross in the mountains in the evening. Serious training yielded results: Ramazanov raised five Wushu Sunda world champions.
- Have you tried to perform in other sports? In boxing, for example?
- I did not play in boxing, but in kickboxing in 1998 at the Russian Championship (full contact) I took first place. In the same year he won the World Championship in amateur kickboxing (full contact), organized in Kiev. There were also performances in army hand-to-hand combat. I remember the tournament among the special forces of the Russian law enforcement agencies, organized in Elista by the President of the Republic of Kalmykia Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. I was then asked to speak for one power agency of the Republic of Dagestan. From all over Russia, fighters from the SOBR, riot police, special forces Alpha, Golden Eagle, Ilyumzhinov's bodyguards, all in the uniform of their units, came to the tournament. But I did not look at their form - I took first place in my category.
- How did you end up in the professional ring?
- The first time I fought professionally in 1997, when I was 17 years old. In Makhachkala, at that time, fights were organized according to the DRAKA version and many tested their strength in these tournaments. Later, she performed professionally in Moscow: at the Kristall Casino and at the Arbat Fight Club. But, of course, most of the fights I had in Japan.
- And how did you first get to the Land of the Rising Sun?- Through the famous Thai boxing trainer in Makhachkala, and throughout Russia, Zaynalbek Zaynalbekov and the Russian Muay Thai League. I learned that Zaynalbek gathers athletes in Makhachkala to participate in professional fights of SWA in Japan. He came to him, he already knew me in absentia, saw my performances in Wushu Sanda. I approached him, because I had a good fight, and in the SWA version, not only punches and kicks were allowed, but also throws, wrestling on the ground. But I didn’t go to Japan right away, before that I was busy for a year on a tight schedule. In the morning, training in wrestling, in the evening in Thai boxing. The contract was for 2 years, there were five of us from Makhachkala. We lived and trained on the island of Hokkaido in Osahikawa, and traveled all over Japan to perform. Japanese instructors taught us pain techniques from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and the head coach of Russia in Thai boxing Oleg Terekhov put us on the shock equipment. I spent several fights in Thai boxing, but mostly fought according to the SWA. Then, many good fighters performed at these fights: Arslan Magomedov, Abdulla Gusniev, Magomed Ismailov, Magomed Magomedov. All at one time became world champions in Thai boxing, some of them now live and train in Thailand.
- How do you like Japan and the Japanese?
- I have never met such fans of fights anywhere: the Japanese go to fights with families, with children. After the fighting, they go into the locker room to get acquainted, take autographs. The fighting in Japan is broadcast on TV, covered in magazines ... In general, after the fighting, people recognized us on the streets.
- How did you switch to coaching?
- Injured in training the cruciate ligament of the knee. Doctors insisted that I “tied up” with professional performances. In 2002, I graduated from the Dagestan Technical University with a degree in food industry technologist, which I never worked on. Drawn to sports. In 2004, he received an invitation from Vladimir Burdun to train at the Martial Arts Academy in Dubai. Now I am conducting Thai boxing training there for children and adults on Rigga Street in Deira. I'm training fighters from the Creative Concepts Martial Arts Team.
- Igor Vasiliev from Creative Concepts Real Estate Agency called you a real find for the team sponsored by his company.
- For the United Arab Emirates, this may be so - here fighting sport is not yet very developed. But in Dagestan there are many people like me.
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