Seagal to produce MMA show in Russia
Steven Seagal: “We think that we can do something very unusual here, because we want to set up a situation where we do everything, not just like UFC.”
Steven Seagal is the most inadvertently comical individual to ever stumble into mixed martial arts, or arguably the planet. He insisted on “teaching” Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida; the pair, both lifelong martial artists, respectfully complied. Seagal then claimed to have taught Silva the front kick that he knocked out Vitor Belfort with at UFC 126. Video later surfaced of the two former UFC champions cracking up about the encounter.
Now the Hollywood Reporter‘s Vladimir Kozlov reports that Seagal has launched a sports promotion company in Russia to produce a live fight show called Zhara Fight. The debut show will take place on May 30 at one of Moscow, Russia’s most popular venues, Vegas City Hall.
“Emin Agalarov helped me make it real,” said Seagal in the promotional video below. “We think that we can do something very unusual here, because we want to set up a situation where we do everything. Not just like UFC, but you know maybe there’s a MMA kind of thing, maybe there’s boxing, maybe there’s different kind of fighters. We want to do everything. We want to do kickboxing, and boxing, and mixed martial arts. So we want to do something that really shows everything.”
The Azerbaijani-Russian Agalarov is a businessman, popular singer, and owner of the Vegas City Hall. Well connected, he helped arrange the June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya that has been investigated as part of a wider, ongoing examination of possible Russian influence on the last US election.
Seagal is a support of US President Donald Trump, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin. Indeed, Seagal obtained Russian citizenship in 2016.
“I’ve had many, many, many face to face conversations with our president,” said Seagal of Putin. “It’s always a great honor and a learning experience to sit with him and have the honor of being in his presence and learning from him. He is a spectacular human being and a great, great, great world leader, maybe, the greatest.”
There are also far darker allegations against Seagal than the colossal buffoonery. He has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by a number of women, including Jenny McCarthy and Regina Simons. Earlier this year the Beverly Hills PD submitted a sexual assault case against Seagal to the LA DA’s office.