(This story appears in today’s edition of USA TODAY .) When 29-year-old Ali Bagautinov steps into the cage to fight UFC flyweight titleholder Demetrious Johnson at UFC 174 on Saturday, it’ll be the second week in a row that a UFC main event features a fighter from Dagestan, a small Russian republic that’s quickly become known to fight fans as a treasure trove of talented fighters. The little republic in the North Caucasus region might only have about 3 million people scattered across roughly 20,000 square miles, but it seems to produce an inordinate number of top mixed martial arts fighters, many of whom end up in Albuquerque, N.M., at the gym owned and operated by famed trainers Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn. According to Jackson, it started with lightweight Rustam Khabilov, who suffered a submission loss to Benson Henderson in the main event of UFC Fight Night 42 just this past weekend. When he first showed up on the advice of a former manager, Jackson said, he was the only Dagestani on the mats. “Now we have a ton of them,” Jackson told USA TODAY Sports
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With Ali Bagautinov, Jackson-Winkeljohn camp embracing Dagestani surge into UFC – MMA Junkie