High Stakes on the Mat: RAF Makes History with Moscow Debut

 Real American Freestyle (RAF) is reshaping combat sports. By combining high-stakes, fast-paced freestyle wrestling with the drama of main-event super-matches, RAF has given world-class wrestlers and crossover MMA stars a high-paying, unscripted global platform.

RAF expanded its international footprint with its debut event in Russia—RAF Moscow: Chimaev vs. Woodley.  

What Made the Moscow Event Unmissable?

1. High-Octane Crossover Main Event

The headliner brought high-octane spectacle. Former UFC Middleweight Champion Khamzat Chimaev locked up with former UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley in a catchweight wrestling super-match. Chimaev lived up to the home-crowd hype, securing a lightning-fast pinfall victory just 1:34 into the opening round.  

2. World-Class Freestyle Bouts

Beyond the crossover star power, the card delivered elite freestyle wrestling. American Olympic legend Kyle Snyder successfully defended his RAF Light Heavyweight title against Olympic gold medalist Akhmed Tazhudinov. Meanwhile, multi-time World Champion Kyle Dake held down the Cruiserweight division in a high-paced rematch against Mahamedkhabib Kadzimahamedau.  

3. Cross-Border Collaboration

Co-organized alongside the International Boxing Association (IBA), the event highlights RAF’s push to build a global circuit spanning the US, Europe, Central Asia, and beyond. Despite navigating complex international sports geopolitics, RAF delivered a packed arena and high-payoff matches.  

Why RAF is Changing the Game

Direct Compensation for Elite Athletes: Pure freestyle wrestling has historically lacked consistent financial payouts outside Olympic cycles. RAF gives world champions, NCAA legends, and elite combat sports athletes regular payday opportunities.

Bridging MMA and Pure Wrestling: By allowing current and former UFC champions to test their roots on the mat, RAF attracts both traditional wrestling purists and casual combat sports fans.

RAF's Moscow debut proves the league's global ambitions are moving fast. Whether you're tuning in for elite Olympic-level scrambles or high-profile star matchups, freestyle wrestling's newest era has arrived.

Travelling to Moscow? Where to Train BJJ!

Guys if you're coming to Moscow, Russia check out these gyms:

Lion Team
Lion is the oldest BJJ club in Moscow and has two branches, Lion Crocus (located on the border between Moscow and Moscow region) and Lion Baza (Begovaya Area)

Both clubs have suitable gi and no gi classes, run regularly by experienced instructors so its worth visiting and giving it a try.

Lion Baza runs regular morning classes, something that is seldom offered by other clubs for those of you with work committments. All the information is available on the website, but if any questions please post here!

The club was founded back in 2006 by Leonid Gatovskiy, first Russian Black Belt. Currently classes are lead by Ali Magomedov, European BJJ Champion at Purple (Now Brown Belt) and Stas Varshavskiy, a well known competitor teaching at Lion Crocus. Both are english speakers.

Ludus Team
A good club based in the center lead by Alexandre Deda Faria, a brazilian black belt who regularly runs seminars across the country. Check out their Frunzenskaya location if convenenient. They run their evening classes open for everybody and you may see some top black belts joining you in training down there.

Checkmat / Adaev Team
Setup as a Checkmat branch, the academy offers both gi and no-gi classes with a focus more on the no-gi. The head instructor is Daud Adaev who was one of the students of Leonid Gatovskiy.

Kristian Cestaro Team (Ribeiro Jiu Jitsu Moscow)
Lead by Kristian Cestaro, a brazilian black belt relocated to Russia, this is one of the leading clubs with several branches in Moscow, successfully competing in the local tournaments. The club is affiliated with the Ribeiro associated.

Ronin Family 
This is one of the local clubs run by Igor Lunyakov, a young purple belt and student of Leonid Gatovskiy. The club is affiliated with Roy Dean academy is despite being one of the younger clubs in Moscow is now active on the local competition scene.

You can find all the information about them on their website roninfamily.ru

Ronin I think has a lot more newer belt competitors but will sure show better results in the coming years.

Strela Team

Despite what people say, Strela Team is perhaps the most successful and big team on the local Moscow competition scene here. A lot of the top guys from Lion moved there 4-5 years ago while others left Strela due to their focus on team loyalty / politics which has pushed also a lot of people away out of the club. You can see this from their interview approach for visitors or new members.

Dmitriy Selivakhin is the head instructor down there and no doubt they will remain one of the most important clubs on the local bjj scene for years to come.



-----------------------


Drop by a post if you have any questions or comments. I have mentioned a few major clubs with some other notable such as Zaleev Team (focused on No-Gi Grappling), Creonche and a few smaller clubs (without websites) out of the picture and probably no the best choice for visitors coming over.


I also wrote this post many years ago in 2009! if you are interested how the scene has changed

Moscow Russia BJJ Scene

Very exciting to see that the Russian BJJ scene and Moscow in particular is booming. IBJJF is organizing the first ever event in town which hopefully will be a great success and for sure a big step to making the sport more organized over here.

Most tournaments so far focused on BJJ have really lacked the organization structure as well as proper conditions to popularize the sport. Now it seems many Russia-based BJJ players have a great opportunity to compete at the famous CSK Arena in Moscow.

It seems Moscow has already around 5-6 clubs operating and teaching brazilian jiu jitsu and several more in St. Petersburg. With the number of competitors growing, hopefully in a couple of years we see more and more exciting fighters going on to the Europeans to compete with some of the best players from Brazil, USA and of course other European countries.

Some of the top BJJ clubs competing include Gracie Barra, Ribeiro International, Stone Fight and Strela Team.

Come and register for the IBJJF Moscow Open to be held on the 7th-8th of November 2014!
http://ibjjf.org/

BJJ Seminar Moscow Russia

Guys, a couple of brazilian jiu jitsu seminars coming up in the next few months if you are interested. very exciting when we have great guys coming over to teach.

Max Carvalho Seminar 21-22 April 2012, organized by Gracie Barra Hungary and Axe Capoeira
http://axecapoeira.ru/?p=737



Ralek Gracie Seminar 29 April 2012
http://www.ilmma.ru/news/news79.php

This will be at the Moscow Center of Martial Arts, Chertanovskaya Metro is the closest one.

Sport Club Lion (Gracie Barra) is also organizing several seminars and also a summer camp for BJJ in Suzdal. Plenty of opportunities here.

Short summary of the announcement below, but follow the link to the Sport Club Lion website as well and call for details:
http://sportclublion.ru/portal2/component/content/article/19-introscroller/243-anons-sobitiy-kluba

Здравствуйте!

 1-3 июня состоится семинар по бразильскому джиу-джитсу и грэпплингу черного пояса по бразильскому джиу джитсу, трехкратного победителя ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship, ветерана Pride и UFC Дина Листера.

 1-15 июня состоится кшатра на севере Индии.
 Тренировочная програма: - «2 + 1» - два дня тренируемся, один отдыхаем (трек или поездка); - подъем в 5 утра, купание в горной реке - 7.00 Зарядка. Макс Дедик (Пробежка, Йога, медитация «Столб») - 1я тренировка: Леонид Гатовский. Грепплинг и Бразильское Джиу-Джитсу - 2я тренировка: Макс Дедик. Кросс и ОФП + «Ударка» (Ичи-Геки) - мастер-классы выдающихся бойцов – участников Кшатры; Отдых: - каждый 3й день – трек (поход по горам) - поездка в Маникаран и встреча с рекой Парвати
- Большой поход с ночевкой на Хрустальную Гору в конце путешествия - «Свит Лодж»
- Индейская Баня в Гималаях - Разговоры у костра; Го – Игра Самураев 19-25 июня состоится семинар по бразильскому джиу-джитсу и грэпплингу черного пояса по бразильскому джиу джитсу, многократного победителя и призера чемпионатов мира по бразильскому джиу-джитсу, панамериканских чемпионатов по бразильскому джиу джитсу, турниров IBJJF и ветерана ADCC Бруно Бастоса.

 Ну а гвоздем нашей летней программы станет лагерь в г. Суздаль, который состоится 3-13 августа и инструктором в котором будет ветеран UFC, Pride и Dream, двукратный чемпион Бразилии по бразильскому джиу джитсу, двукратный победитель панамериканского чемпионата по бразильскому джиу джитсу, черный пояс 4 степени по бразильскому джиу Маркус Аурелио.

Более подробно с информацией о готовящемся лагере можно ознакомиться пройдя по ссылке. По вопросам участия в семинарах и лагере просьба обращаться по телефону +7-985-233-11-72

Training In Moscow with a Great Instructor, Leonid Gatovskiy

Those of you looking to train in Moscow Russia at a great club with an awesome instructor, consider Sport Club Lion. The Head Instructor there is Leonid Gatovskiy, the first BJJ black belt in Russia under Renzo Gracie and certainly one of the most able grapplers in Russia today.

Please check out the video below:





Sport Club Lion is the number 1 Gracie Barra Academy in Russia and has some true talented fighters already on its team list. Great academy and super instructors.

Please see below an interview with Leonid Gatovskiy, my teacher.



 The BJJ Moscow Open Cup is behind us, a great event and a crowd of more than 150 competitors from all over Moscow.

I think the events just get bigger and bigger and the academies are literally full. In a couple of years I think we are going to see crowds of 300-400 people as is in the big BJJ events in the UK and it will become a big sport.

MMA is growing and bjj and grappling is an important element that many enjoy. Russian grappling and brazilian jiu jitsu has a great future ahead, lots of very good and talented guys now learning the martial art, sparring and I think the level is improving fast. We should see some strong results in the Europeans next year. Well, I might even go too!

Fedor vs Monson Some Thoughts

Fedor vs Monson is an interesting match. Both fighters have skills that they did not manage to perfect over the years which are obvious. Fedor has the stand up to take this fight but Monson is hard to knock out and his BJJ could be dangerous for Fedor.

Nevertheless, I think Fedor should be able to resist the ground game of the Snowman. Werdum and Big Foot were much bigger and really what Fedor has shown recently is really in my mind a decline in the will to fight and also physical abilities. His speed has declined somewhat. If you saw his fights in the past, he was ferocious on the attack, with each hand landing either devastating strikes or upper body takedowns.

More recently he was basically man-handled by Bigfoot and also Brett Rogers. He used to be able to escape many of those positions just on physical ability alone. Now really he has to work for it. He gets real tired more quickly and then cant display the same level of quality of technique on the ground as some of the BJJ black belts.

This fight could go either way but this time Fedor has learnt that the ground game is dangerous for him these days. He will try to knock out Monson standing as he did with his opponents in the recent fights and then be careful on the ground. If Monson does wrestle him to the grounnd though, I do believe that his ability to control and finish fights will be the decider. Looking forward to this one! Great fight for the Moscow MMA crowds and very good for the sport in Russia which is quickly gaining popularity.

BJJ Grading and more news at Lion Sports Club

Last month, the club held the first ever grading of BJJ practitioners in Russia by a Russian instructor. Leonid Gatovskiy (Gracie Barra Brown Belt) has for the first time awarded blue belts to four very dedicated students that were not able to go to Poland for the summer BJJ camp held there where the team was graded. A big congratulations to all the guys.

On more news from the club, the schedule has been changed to include many more additional classes in brazilian jiu jitsu as well as for the first time including separate classes for students who wish to practice grappling. For sure this will attract many more students to the club and I think it is only a matter of time before the club sets up an affiliate elsewhere in Moscow.

The club will also likely be holding a seminar later this year most likely with the possible visit of Draculino but this has not been confirmed yet. Vinicius Magalhães is one of the biggest names in BJJ and is a true legend of the sport. This will be a great honour for him to come to Russia to the only Gracie Barra school there so far.

Competition wise it will be exciting to see more competitions from the club to give the students a chance to test their skills in both gi and no-gi competitions against some of the best bjj, sambo, judo and submission grappling clubs in the country and from abroad. Hope to see this soon as well.

Grappling Open Moscow Competition in May 2010

Lion Sports Club will hold an open grappling competition for all in Moscow, Russia in the middle of May this year. I understand there will be teams from across the country competing from a whole range of disciples including jiu jitsu, sambo, judo and wrestling.

Here is the link for more information: http://sportclublion.ru/portal2/component/content/article/19-introscroller/126-announce

More news to follow, stay here

Videos from BJJ Moscow Seminar Ze Radiola and Max Corvalho, 6-8.11.2009.

Sambo Super Cup in Moscow 24-27 March 2010

For those interested, the Sambo Super Cup will be held in Moscow this year on the 24-27 March 2010. The event will be held in memory of Kharlampiev and is one of the biggest international sambo tournaments in the world. With over 300 athletes and 30 national teams present, this event will include some of the strongest athletes in the world competing in both Sport Sambo and Combat Sambo.

More information if you follow this link: http://www.sambo.ru/events/worldcup/harlampiev_moskow/

Time table:

24 March : Introductions, judge seminar and weigh-ins

25 March:

10.00-15.00 : Preliminary fights
Mens: 52, 62, 74, 90, +100 kg
Womens: 48, 56, 64, 72, +80 kg

15.00-16.00: weigh-ins

18.30 - finals

26 March:

10.00
Preliminary fights
Mens (sport sambo): 57, 68, 82, 100 kg
Mens (combat sambo): 68, 74, 90 kg
Womens: 52, 60, 68, 80 kg

18.00 Finals and Awards

Generally looks like 25-26 March are the days you want to go to this. Address is Варшавское шоссе, д.118, кор.1. (Varshavskoe shosse, building 118)

Whether Fedor Emelianenko is participating? I doubt it but it is possible. I heard in his latest interview he was talking about this.

For the calendar on future sambo events check out http://www.sambo.com/index-en.html

Where to buy martial arts gear in Moscow?

There are a couple of great places to buy your judo Gi and other accessories you may need.

1. Budo-Sport Shop:

Address:
Moscow, Pokrovka street, 41
either Kurskaya or Chistiye Prudi metro stations
Working hours: mon-fri 10:00-20:00, sat-sun: 11:00-18:00
Credit/debit cards are not accepted (you can safely assume that for all Moscow martial arts shops)
Tel: (495) 917-82-06

2. Ray-Sport:

Address:
Moscow, Kozhevnecheskaya street, 10/2
Tel: (495) 959-7763
http://www.ray-sport.ru/

3. Ippon-Style:

Address:
Moscow, Mitnaya street, 42/44
second floor of Shabolovka Sports Club
Tel: (926) 710-34-03, (495) 514-48-38, (926) 693-26-61

http://www.ippon-style.ru


For Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Gis the best place is to purchase online with www.dragonbleu.fr
They deliver directly to Russia and sell also other useful gear like rash guards, protective equipment. Your order should be no more that RUR10 000 per order excluding delivery cost as there may be customs problems and fees if the size exceeds this number to my knowledge.

Mestre Max Carvalho BJJ seminar in Moscow, Russia 3-5 April

We have the pleasure next week to learn from Mestre Max Carvalho, a brazilian jiu jitsu black belt and European BJJ Champion.

The seminar will be held 3-5 april, i.e. Friday to Sunday this week.

• 3 april (Friday) - 20:00 - 22:00 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Foundations (with Gi).
• 4 april (Saturday) - 14:00 - 16:00 – Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (with Gi)
  18.00 - 20.00 - submission grappling (no-gi).
• 5 april (Sunday) - 12:00 - 14:00 – submission grappling (no-gi)
  16.00 - 18.00 – Vale Tudo (MMA)

Cost is RUR2500 and prior registration is required. The event is organized by Axe Capoeira Group: axecapoeira@axecapoeira.ru tel: +7 (926) 212-4007 map

please see link

Clubs in Moscow, Russia for Judo and BJJ

Please see updated article here: click link 

For those looking to do some training in Moscow, I decided to write a little about this. When I first thought to do some Judo training, I was very surprised by how difficult it is to find a decent club where you can train at a time convenient for you.

Of course, as anyone else, I started googling for likely suspects on the Internet. What I was surprised to see that actually there are under-5 decent judo club websites devoted to Judo in the whole of Moscow and near Moscow region. None of these are in the centre of Moscow, and the majority require you to take a bus once the underground stops being available for the rest of the journey. The reason for this is that many of the dense populated areas are outside the city centre and given the extremely high property and rent prices, this is where they locate.

I would add that not only do their websites dont work, but it typically is just a phone number which when you call:

90% of the time: no answer!

5% of the time: the person that you start talking to doesnt know anything about the club, times etc

and finally! 5% of the time: you actually are lucky enough to speak to somebody, but more often that not you find out that what was written on the Internet has changed, there is no training etc etc

It is better to call though, because if you do turn up and dont call, you run a danger that nobody will be there and no one will know anything about this.

The other thing I thought really deserves a mention are facilities. When I lived in the UK and trained there for judo, the one thing I never thought was worth complaining about are the facilities. Normally clubs use fitness clubs which allow people to practice judo without purchasing a fitness club membership which normally is considerably more expensive.

In Moscow however, this is different. Having reviewed all possible websites, there are no serious clubs that use fitness centre facilities. By "serious" I mean that many of the fitness centre courses have 1-hour long sessions, once or twice a week which is not nearly enough to learn anything really about jiu jitsu or judo.

Instead, most clubs use state owned facilities whether these belong to a school, police, sport stadium etc. The fact is though that unless these facilities have been redone with private money, they tend to be dreadful, with no showers, changing rooms etc.

Now the places I normally go to but that of course does not mean that there arent other great places to visit.

For Judo:

1. Moscow Kodokan 7:00-8:30pm Mondays and Fridays. The address is Chistoprudniy Bulvar 14.

Good facilities and very nice teacher. Lessons are focused much more on sparring rather then on technique. There is also far more newaza (groundwork) than is normally, with 3-4 randori fights as part of the session.

Again, they dont have a website, but it is a good school and there are plenty of other martial arts classes in the same building including Aikido, Karate, Wushu, Sambo etc as well as Yoga. The owner is an ex-world champion judoka Sergei Kosorotov, a very well known figure.

The Sambo that is practiced here is combat Sambo. Most of the students are beginners but the teacher is very good. Sometimes we judokas spar against sambokas for practice.

Here is a RUTUBE link about the club

Here is a link to their latest websites - Moscow Budokan is another option here taught by Kosorotov himself, not sure if I am a fan of his teaching methods though, a bit controversial:

http://www.budo-sport.ru/

2. Shabolovka. Mitnaya street 42/44. (tel. 236-03-66 )

This is a state facility where facilities are not to a high standard at all (I mean if you don't mind water from melting snow dripping from the roof on to your head while you train, then go here).

Nevertheless, this is a very spacious place to train and the teaching is very good, highly technique-focused. Training is monday, wednesday and Friday in the evening starting at 8:30 pm. Also morning lessons are available 8:00 am to 9:30 am on Mondays and Fridays.


This one is included in the Russian Judo Federation website list at www. judo.ru

Many of the data there is clearly out of date however. The other website to check is www.judo-moscow.ru but the situation with their list is just the same.

I used visit these guys on Tuesdays and Thursdays and was very satisfied here until the instructor had to leave and the group was moved to the present schedule.

It seems like this place is more for higher level guys and girls who are still in their teens and train during the day. It really does feel like noone owns this facility when you get there. In the video you can get a sense of what the club is like.


3. Dmitriy Nosov School. (940-72-89)

A number of locations available and I have heard some good things about this club. Please take a look at the website for more information here

The Nosov club offers several classes in three different locations and I understand Dmitriy himself actually sometimes teaches the celebrity class near Tverskaya.

They are also doing quite a lot to motivate their guys organizing interclub competitions and also awarding grades unlike all the other schools that don't do this for casual adult fans.

As you can see from the video, the club is growing quickly and they are organizing gradings and competitions which is a lot more than many others are doing at this point.

4. Several Others - here are a few links to some other places where you can practice Judo

http://judoforall.ru/bronnaya-sloboda.html - four clubs including Shabolovka with time table, instructor details and address. I am going to visit Bronnaya Sloboda club soon, to find out more.

http://oneginclub.ru/docs/242/ - this is my fitness club but I am pretty sure there are maybe only 2-3 fitness clubs in Moscow that offer Judo so if you are looking to casually try the sport out and also be a member of a fitness club, this could be the place to go. Situated in the centre of Moscow, it is also much more convenient compared to may other choices. Not great club for serious Judo/BJJ player as the classes are mainly for beginners.

Brazilian Jiu Jisu

Now, I have much to say about BJJ in Russia but I will leave this for my next blog. What I will do is just give contact details of the only 2 clubs I know in Moscow:

1. Lion Sport Club: http://sportclublion.ru. Krilatskoye Metro Station

This is the only Gracie Barra official school in Russia with a brown belt teacher, Leonid Gatovskiy (highest ranked in Russia). Very good facilities - changing room, showers and weights room included.

Lion Sports Club is a fast growing gym in Moscow and I think in a few years will produce some very strong athletes both in BJJ and MMA. The new training schedule is here: http://sportclublion.ru/portal2/sport-club-jiu-jitsu-muay-thai-dates-trenings

Good teaching and quite a bit of emphasis on no-gi training, MMA and standup than is usually the case.

Muay Thai boxing classes are also available at the gym as well as mixed martial arts.

If you want a really solid BJJ and grappling teacher, I would say this is the club to go to. It is certainly the largest BJJ-focused club in Russia regularly organizing open grappling tournaments that gathered in the past more than 100 competitors from all over Moscow and beyond.

Leonid Gatovskiy himself is an outstanding grappler and BJJ player and has competed in many tournaments in Russia and abroad taking gold in each one. He is also a black belt in traditional jiu jitsu.

Daud Adaev is a purple belt there and is a supporting instructor.

The club also annually travels to Poland for a jiu jitsu training camp under the Gracie Barra Draculino banner.



I think if you live in the area, this is a good place for BJJ and Judo for kids. Currently the club offers both Judo for kids and Jiu jitsu/Combat Sambo for teens. The instructors are very professional so anyone considering which club to join should certainly consider Lion.

The cost is a bit higher then most other clubs but the facilities and the teaching quality is worth it.

Click here to see the facebook page of the club.

Also would like to mention that for the first time this year, Leonid Gatovskiy has promoted himself four of his students to blue belt. It is always great to see promotions of these four guys who have really earned their new grades. Well Done Guys!

2. Capoeira Club at metro Baumanskaya. (Axe Capoeira) Please visit: www.axecapoeira.ru
The club is located on police premises.

Very poor facilities and the teaching is a bit of mix between bjj, sambo and judo. For a beginner however still a good start since all the techniques are relevant. For me this one was very convenient, so also worth it.

The teacher is a blue belt in BJJ, but a lot of the teaching is done by experienced Sambo practitioners. I have found these lessons were extremely useful as I had a chance to revise some of the common leglocks that can be useful.

3. Capoeira Camara Moscow - this club I have not been to but the teacher is the Sambo guy from Axe Capoeira. Here is the link

These guys also appear to be located at Baumanskaya offering 4 lessons a week in the evenings. For those who live in the area I guess another option for BJJ.

I think its great that this blog exists and this is one of the most visited web pages by foreigners who come to Moscow and are looking for a club to train. So many major cities in the world it is hard to find an english website that gives this, so for Moscow, I decided to make this myself and welcome people to train. Russian Judo Federation sucks, so I guess we have to do their work for them.

A great group of guys have setup mmablog.ru so I attach the link to their club list as well as I think it maybe helpful http://mmablog.ru/content/zaly

PS: thank you very much and please let me know if any of the information here is not accurate and of course if you have anything to add, feel free