Oleg Taktarov

Biography

Date of Birth 26 August 1967, Arzamas-16, Gorky province, Soviet Union [now Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod province, Russia] Height 6' (1.83 m) Oleg Taktarov is a Russian martial artist. He is a practitioner of Sambo and Judo and has competed in mixed martial arts in the UFC and PRIDE. Taktarov last fought a professional MMA match in 1998. Taktarov's MMA record from 1995 to 1998 was 11-5-2. He never tapped or was submitted in a MMA match. Taktarov is remembered for being calm during fights and for using a variety of rarely seen, acrobatic take-down moves. He usually finished bouts with a submission hold. Between UFC 5 (where he lost to Dan Severn) and UFC 6 (where he won the tournament, beating "Tank" Abbott in the finals), Taktarov lived and trained with Ken Shamrock's Lion's Den fighting team.[1]. Taktarov and Shamrock then fought to a draw at UFC 7 in the SuperFight. His fights with "Tank" Abbott and Dan Severn in 1995 are well-known. Taktarov won against Abbott, but could not stand on his own when it ended (the elevation of the contest left both fighters exhausted due to oxygen depravation). He lost to Severn in one of the bloodier fights the UFC had seen in those early days (see also controversies for more on that fight). After retiring from mixed martial arts, Taktarov focused on his acting career, and starred in the movies 15 Minutes, Bad Boys II and the 2002 version of Rollerball. He also appeared in the first episode of season 3 of Alias entitled The Two [2] He has also appeared in a few Russian productions, and was cast in a few upcoming releases for 2007.[3] Taktarov also released several instructional Sambo videos and also made an instructional video with Vladimir Vasiliev entitled Russian Mega Fighting.