MMA-Mixed Martial Arts Russian fighter and belt holder Rinat Fakhredtinov refused to fight contenders Dauren Ermekov and Faridun Odilov.
The reason given was by Rinat was that he did not want to face ‘Muslim brothers’ in the cage during Gorilla Fighting Championship.
In an interview he said, “Due to my religious beliefs I can’t beat them at full strength. So, to avoid betraying my fundamental beliefs I give up the belt’.
Still, he does not want to retire at age of 28 years and is ready to fight non-muslim opponents. Belonging to middleweight category, Rinat has an outstanding professional record of 19 wins as to only 2 losses. Most of the wins have be knocked-outs. Further, in 2014 the Russian fighter has won 13-fights in a streak.
MMA is cage fighting based on various combat sports such as striking, punching in the face, ground fighting and grapping.