Where Is Nassourdine Imavov From? Dagestan Roots, Ethnicity & Nationality Explained

Every fighter carries more than fists into the cage. Some bring scars, others bring stories. Nassourdine Imavov brings both. The French middleweight may be known as ‘The Sniper’ in the UFC, but behind the nickname is a journey that stretches from the rugged streets of Dagestan to the bright lights of Paris.

The 30-year-old Imavov is now gearing up for the biggest test of his career at this point. He’ll be headlining UFC Paris against Caio Borralho in a bout that could determine the next challenger for the middleweight crown. Yet, while the fight world debates his chances, many fans are asking a simpler question: where is Nassourdine Imavov truly from?

Is Nassourdine Imavov from Dagestan?

The short answer is yes. Nassourdine Imavov was born on March 1, 1995, in Khasavyurt, Dagestan, Russia. This is the same region that produced names like Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev. Wrestling mats, after all, are as common there as football fields elsewhere.

However, in search of better opportunities in MMA, he and his family members moved to Salon-de-Provence in France when he was just 9 years old.

Nonetheless, hailing from Russia, Imavov is an accomplished wrestler, which is the story of most of the fighters in Russia. But after moving to France, he started learning to box, which helped him in his fights in the UFC. Now, let’s shift our focus to questions about his ethnicity.

What is Nassourdine Imavov’s ethnicity?

In Imavov’s case, he belongs to the Kumyk people, a Turkic ethnic group native to Dagestan. When he was in Dagestan, Nassourdine Imavov claimed that he never participated in any kind of sports. As we’ve mentioned already, he was pretty young when he moved to France, and it was there that he discovered his love for boxing. When he started competing, he represented France since he was a citizen of that country.

As a French fighter, ‘The Sniper’ has won championships in regional MMA promotions, and now, with his impressive run in the UFC, he’s putting his nation on the map as well. But this is all about Nassourdine Imavov’s fighting career, so let’s take a look at how his life was growing up and what led him to become a mixed martial artist.

The childhood of Nassourdine Imavov in Khasavyurt, Dagestan

A couple of years back, A YouTube channel by the name of ‘MMA Fanatics’ shared a video of an interview where the middleweight fighter shared the details of his childhood days. While he didn’t do any sports, Nassourdine Imavov claimed that he knew how to wrestle, which was the culture in Dagestan. Almost everybody knows how to wrestle, which is not a very surprising revelation, given how many world-class wrestling-heavy MMA fighters the region has produced.

“I wasn’t in a sports gym, but I was doing some fighting. We would fight outside, and like I said when my father’s friend would bring his son, we would wrestle. It’s the culture. Everybody’s doing wrestling,” Nassourdine Imavov stated. The 30-year-old then gave a bit of a glimpse of his childhood days in France and pointed out how he first started doing boxing there. He said, “Of course, it wasn’t easy. For me, it was okay because I was a kid. When you are a kid, you quickly adopt.”

Nassourdine Imavov’s father was also a professional boxer, and it was his brother, Daguir Imavov, who first started fighting professionally. By the time he turned 19, he was hooked. MMA became his calling. That passion pushed him to Paris, where he trained under Fernand Lopez at MMA Factory. Years later, he shifted to the Venum Training Camp under Nicolas Ott, sharpening his skills further.

Now, with UFC Paris on the horizon, from wrestling in Dagestan courtyards to professional MMA in France, his path has come full circle.