Makhmud Muradov (born 8 February 1990) is a Tajik-born Uzbek^[26][27] and Czech professional mixed martial artist, former professional kickboxer and amateur combat sambist fighting out of Bukhara, Uzbekistan and Prague, Czech Republic.^{[12][13][14][15][16]} He is currently signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight division.

Makhmud Muradov was born on February 8, 1990, in Soviet Tajikistan, to a father who was a Tajik national and a mother who was from Soviet Uzbekistan. In 1993, he fled as a refugee with his family to his mother's native Uzbekistan due to the ongoing Tajik civil war, and finally, in 2019, he was granted Uzbek citizenship.^{[17][8][9][10]}

He trained boxing in his youth before transitioning to kickboxing and became Junior Uzbek Kickboxing Champion under K-1 rules.^[28][29]

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 2011, then 19 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.^[30][7] He started training Muay Thai and MMA in Prague under the tutelage of Petr Kníže, who allowed Muradov to train and sleep in his gym for free and also helped him get a more comfortable job as a bouncer. Muradov then started his professional MMA career in 2012.^{[28][17][29][19][23]}

A professional MMA competitor since 2012, Muradov is both the first Tajik-born and Uzbek UFC fighter, and the world's first mixed martial artist signed by Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s The Money Team.^[34][35][18]

Besides his native Uzbek, Muradov speaks Czech, Russian and English and is conversational in Polish and Arabic.^[73]

Muradov is a non-denominational Muslim and he does not strictly observe the Ramadan fast.^[17]

Since 2018, he has been dating Monika Bagárová, a Czech singer.^[74][75] On May 27, 2020, Bagárová gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Rumia.^[76][77] The couple split up in December 2021, however in February 2022 Bagárová confirmed they had reconciled.^[78][79] They separated again in July 2022.^[80] In March 2023 Muradov confirmed relationship with Czech reality TV star Sabina Karásková.^[81]

Muradov has stated multiple times that he is very patriotic towards the Czech lands and Prague.^[26][27] He called himself an “Uzbek with a Czech heart” or a “Czech from Uzbekistan”, and also a “Czech representative” and a “proud Praguer”. Because of that, Muradov turned down Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s offer to permanently relocate from Prague to Las Vegas in Nevada, where he is training at both the Dewey "Black Kobra" Cooper's gym and the Mayweather Boxing Club, as well as working for Mayweather Jr. himself.^[82]

During his early time in Prague, Muradov appeared in autoerotic porn productions and solo softcore porn photo shoots under the stage name "Akhmed Virt" for William Higgins' gay pornographic production company.^{[83][84][85][86][87][88]}

^[101]

1.^ KMM (Kickboxing–Muaythai–MMA) uses hybrid ruleset: first round is conducted under the WAKO's K-1 Rules, second round under the IFMA's Muaythai Rules and third round under the Unified Rules of MMA.

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• List of current UFC fighters
• List of male mixed martial artists