This old school MMA fight took place on May 2, 1997 in Moscow, Russia for the event IAFC
Absolute Fighting Championship 2 and featured a normal sized Russian wrestler taking on massive American karate fighter.

The size difference in this fight is really something to behold and really something you’d only see in the early days of MMA before things like weight limits and ‘rules’ started being implemented.

The Russian fighter is listed at 6’1 and weighs in at just over 200lbs while his opponent is nearly 300 pounds and towers over him at six foot, eight inches tall.

The big man comes from a karate background as you could probably guess by his gi. The Russian guy is said to come from a wrestling background but he certainly doesn’t fight like one when the action starts.

Both men are said to be law enforcement officers from their respective, far off jurisdictions so that adds an interesting element to this fight.

Most Russian military and police are usually trained in some form of sambo so it is likely the Russian fighter has a background in that in addition to his listed wrestling background.

There are several various forms of sambo out there such as sport sambo, freestyle, and combat sambo which is the type practiced by their military and police. Combat sambo includes the use of strikes as well as the typical sambo grappling techniques and it is not too far off from modern MMA.

As far as the fight is concerned, it doesn’t last long at all. Nineteen seconds to be exact. The huge karate fighter goes right at his much smaller foe but as you can see like many karate fighters his hands are way too low.

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The smaller Russian fighter drops him with the first punch he throws then it looks like he thinks about going for an arm but then just decides to pound his massive opponent, forcing him to tap out from strikes.