Third-ranked featherweight MMA contender Shamil “The Cobra” Gasanov is closer than ever to fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming an MMA World Champion.
The Russian grappling ace will take another massive step toward that goal when he runs it back with American star Garry “The Lion Killer” Tonon at ONE Fight Night 34: Eersel vs. Jarvis On Prime Video, which airs live in U.S. primetime from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday, August 1.
The bout comes nearly six months after Gasanov defeated former two-division ONE World Champion Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen at ONE 171: Qatar. That marked his fourth consecutive victory, a winning streak that started after Tonon handed him his first, and only, career blemish in July 2023.
Ahead of his high-stakes rematch with “The Lion Killer,” the Russian talks about his humble beginnings and what motivated him to reach for the stars on the global stage.
‘You Can’t Hide In The Village’
Gasanov grew up in a remote mountain village in the Russian Republic of Dagestan, a breeding ground for a number of the world’s top combat sports athletes.
Following in the footsteps of his father, he began wrestling at an early age – a decision that would pay off over time.
He recalled:
“In my village, you could go to boxing or freestyle wrestling. However, at that time, boxing was just developing, it was a novelty, and our fathers had practiced wrestling before, so it was the more logical choice. I liked wrestling, even though I often lost, but I always wanted to be the best and to be the winner. I had to train again and again, and so I kept on growing in this sport.”
The young wrestler’s small-town upbringing also proved to be a recipe for success, forcing him into excellence under the watchful eyes of his meddling, tight-knit community.
He explained:
“As for training, you can’t hide in the village. If you missed your 5 p.m. training, everyone knew about it. I went as a matter of principle, even if I was ill, so that the neighbors would not ask me why I was absent.”
Choosing Between School And Sport
Throughout his teenage years, Gasanov continued to shine as both an athlete and a student.
At 17, he moved to the city of Rostov-on-Don to study and pursue a promising career in medicine. But before long, he again found himself involved in athletics – this time, submission grappling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Faced with the choice between academics and martial arts, the Russian martial artist decided to follow his calling as a fighter, and he hasn’t looked back since:
“I got admitted to medical college in Rostov and moved there to live. There, I discovered grappling and BJJ, then progressed to MMA and fell in love with the sport.
“That is when I had to make a choice – to train or to study. I talked to my dad and my brother. We decided that I can study part-time only if I definitely could make sports my career and succeed. So, instead of medicine, I transferred to study economics. You cannot study medicine part-time.”
‘We Also Need A Champion’
Eventually, the aspiring fighter dropped out of college to focus his efforts full-time on MMA, taking his first professional fight at just 18 years old.
Looking back, “The Cobra” knows that he was supremely motivated to represent his hometown.
He wanted to prove that a wrestler from a tiny village in the Caucasus Mountains could achieve worldwide greatness and fame, just like other Dagestani-based MMA superstars.
He said:
“We had no athletes in the village who had reached high levels of achievement. We had no World Champions, but in other neighboring villages of Dagestan, they had. And I had this idea in my head that we also need a champion. Are we worse than they are?”
The Dagestani athlete found immediate success in MMA, racking up first-round stoppages in each of his first six bouts. He had an extraordinary gift for hand-to-hand combat.
His time on the regional circuit wasn’t without adversity, though. Those early wins were earned through hard training – often under less-than-ideal conditions.
Gasanov recalls living out of the gym and going without almost all modern comforts:
“We had to sleep in the gym – there was a separate room set up for that over there. There were no windows and no heating in the gym. Sometimes when we trained in winter, there was so much fog in the room from our breath. Sometimes, it was minus-5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) in the gym in winter.”
Following In The Footsteps Of His Idols
“The Cobra” is now just less than two weeks away from his rematch against Tonon. With a win, the Russian would exact revenge and could possibly book a golden ticket to face ONE Featherweight MMA World Champion Tang Kai for the belt.
Gasanov heads into this high-stakes scrap on a four-bout winning streak with gold seemingly within touching distance. For the #3-ranked divisional contender, this would be a massive chance for him to fulfill his career-long goal.
The 29-year-old warrior has long been inspired by the success of his Russian compatriots on the grandest stage of combat sports, after all:
“When I was younger, I heard about this league and dreamed of joining ONE. I remember watching the fight between Timofey Nastyukhin and Dagi Arslanaliev. From that fight on, I began following ONE more than any other promotion. I got convinced after I had seen Marat Gafurov’s and Vitaly Bigdash’s [World Title] belts.”
Gasanov has been mostly dominant in his career, compiling a 17-1 record and securing victories over world-class athletes like the aforementioned Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen, Halil “No Mercy” Amir, and “The Fighting God” Kim Jae Woong.
While he knows there are risks involved against someone of Tonon’s caliber, who submitted him during their first encounter at ONE Fight Night 12 in July 2023, the Peresvet Fight Team and Tiger Muay Thai representative is ready to put it all on the line in this pivotal second battle, win or lose.
He said:
“I do not think about my record. I just get ready for my fights, I go all in. I have never run away from tough opponents.”
