A Fighter’s Path: The Path of The Undefeated

Flyweight:

#3 Askar Askarov

Age: 28 | Russia | 13-0-1 MMA, 2-0-1 UFC

One of the true contenders at Flyweight, Askar Askarov has been one of the front-runners to capture flyweight gold since he joined the promotion. Askarov’s journey is very similar to that of well-known light heavyweight Matt Hamill, who became the first UFC fighter to compete deaf. Askarov is also deaf and only has 20% hearing which one can imagine would make things incredibly difficult throughout a fight. In 2017 he captured gold at the Deaflympics (An event held by the Olympic committee for deaf athletes) in freestyle wrestling. The following year he won bronze in the World Deaf Wrestling for freestyle wrestling. More impressively, while training for both of these events the Russian had already picked up ten wins in Russia and had captured the ACB Flyweight title. At 11-0, he was signed by the UFC and paired with Brandon Moreno in a fight that ended in a draw. Moreno has since fought and drew for the Flyweight title. Askarov is now 2-0-1 in the promotion with wins of Alexandre Pantoja and Tim Elliott. He is expected to face four-time title challenger Joseph Benavidez on March 6 that will likely earn him a title shot with a win.

Notable Victories: Tim Elliott, Alexandre Pantoja

Notable Victories: Douglas Andrade, Ricardo Ramos