Adam Yandiev
When the UFC made their debut in Russia last September they drafted in a popular fighter from the region Adam Yandiev to make his promotional debut, even though he hadn’t fought in three years.
Yandiev’s last apperance had been at M-1 Challenge 62 in 2015, and though he emerged victorious by way of a first round neck crank submission against Dimitry Voitov, the bout became the subject of intense scrutiny due to allegations of match-fixing.
With less than a minute to go in the opening round, Voitov bizarrely opted to disengage and get back to his feet just moments after having secured full mount, then tried getting the fight back to the mat with a telegraphed takedown that Yandiev easily reversed to land on top and produce the neck crank finish.
Afterwards the Russian MMA Union announced that they were investigating the fight on suspicion that it was “contractual,” while adding fuel to the fire was the fact that Yandiev’s own father was an investor in M-1 at the time.
Beyond that incident, Yandiev and his family were also known to have been in a public feud with members of another influential family in his local area, the Belkharoyev’s, which boiled over in 2017 when they got into a fight at a restaurant.
The next day Yandiev’s cousin was on his way back to the restaurant to settle the feud when he was shot in the back by two masked men.
Despite these concerns, Yandiev was still given a chance to shine in the UFC, though he’d lose in his debut by submission.
