Azerbaijani UFC fighter featured in US documentary

US-based Old Stone Pictures has made a documentary about famous Azerbaijani UFC fighter Rafael Fiziev.

The 20-minute documentary “One Day with the Champ” will be presented at international documentary film festivals in the future.

Rafael Fiziev, aka Ataman, is a professional mixed martial artist and currently competes at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which is the most prestigious fighting organization.

“Rafael actively supported Azerbaijan in the 44-day-war Patriotic war against Armenian occupiers [in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020]. He shared posts in social networking platforms and conveyed the truth about the events [in the war] to his friends and other fighters. His patriotism and love for his historical homeland grabbed my attention. Thus, I decided to shoot a film about him,” the director of the documentary, Elmar Bayramov, has said.

The 28-years-old lightweight athlete has been actively involved in professional sports since 2015. He has won nine out of 10 games in MMA and 39 games out of 47 games in kickboxing.

Rafael’s ancestors were deported from Azerbaijan during the Stalin repressions and settled in Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan. His family later moved to Kyrgyzstan, while Rafeal himself works in Thailand for Tiger Muay Thai and Phuket Top Team.  He is the graduate of Kyrgyzstan Police Academy and a former law-enforcer.

The nickname Ataman has been given to the athlete by his first MuayThai coach Pavel Fedotov for Rafael’s love for the military theme.

He is also known for wearing a traditional Azerbaijani hat, which Rafael said was given to him by “Azerbaijani brothers”.

Rafael has said that he will visit Azerbaijan some day.

Rafael has been engaged in a wide range of sports such as wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, combat sambo, muay thai and jujitsu and. He is also fond of blacksmithing and creates samples of edged weapons.