Makhmud Muradov born February 8, is an Uzbek [ 1 ] professional mixed martial artist. Makhmud Muradov was born on February 8, , in Soviet Tajikistan , to a father who was a Tajik national and a mother who was from Soviet Uzbekistan. In , he fled as a refugee with his family to his mother's native Uzbekistan due to the ongoing Tajik civil war , and finally, in , he was granted Uzbek citizenship. He trained boxing in his youth before transitioning to kickboxing and became Junior Uzbek Kickboxing Champion under K-1 rules [ broken anchor ].
Muradov was forced to drop out of school and start working at the age of 15 to provide for his family after his father got involved in a car accident that left him permanently disabled. At the age of 17, he began his successful combat sambo career, and because of that, he earned a well-paid job as a security guard in Russian Siberia.
He was seriously stabbed and shot several times while working there. When his father got released from hospital after four years, his family had to sell their apartment to pay for healthcare bills. Muradov returned to Uzbekistan, and eventually managed to make enough money from competing in combat sambo to be able to buy the apartment back.
However, by his account, it was hard to get a good job without contacts, so in , then 21 years old Muradov moved to the Czech Republic in search of a better-paying job.
There, he worked various jobs such as construction site worker, cleaner, and waiter. Muradov then started his professional MMA career in In February , Muradov became the world's first mixed martial artist signed by Floyd Mayweather Jr.
