Life and career are not two distinct things for BRAVE CF Super Lightweight World Champion Eldar Eldarov. While most people have specific events that marked the first steps of their martial arts path, Eldar can’t remember a single day of his life without martial arts -- directly or indirectly.
“Martial arts was part of my life since day one. If I had to pinpoint something I’d say my first formal classes, when I was six”, Eldar says. “All my friends from school were into karate back then, and I joined all of them”.
If many athletes will first exhaust all options inside a single or a few martial arts to then make a transition to Mixed Martial Arts, Eldarov made a different move. The Dagestan-born Bahraini was a teenager when he first had contact with the concept of mixing multiple martial arts, in the form of combat sambo.
“I considered the beginning of my MMA career being at age 13. That’s when I joined a combat sambo group”, Eldarov tells. “It’s not MMA in the name but it’s very similar. You have striking, takedowns, and ground game. The only difference is that you do that with the top part of your gi on. So I can say that that’s the moment in which I started my MMA career”.
From then on, Eldar always found a way to get himself involved in MMA or martial arts of any form. He got himself a staggering 12-1 pro record, the world title at BRAVE Combat Federation, and a position at head coach at KHK MMA and leading the successful Bahrain National Team of amateur MMA.
“Martial Arts is not just a part of my life, it’s my lifestyle. I cannot imagine my life without being involved with sports, and without martial arts. To the extent that when I was injured I kept going to the gym, visit the training sessions, just to be part of it (laughs). I was only sitting and watching but it was enough for me at that stage. This is how you become successful in what you’re doing. Not just talking about how you want to be a champion, or telling others your dreams and goals. If you go, you go 100% on it”.
MMA is part of Eldarov’s lifestyle
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