Poster of ACB86 featuring Kanakov (left) and Badakhshi (right)

Abdullah Qazi
AOPNEWS | May 5, 2018

Tonight at Moscow’s Olympic Stadium, emerging Afghan MMA fighter Abdul Azim Badakhshi lost via TKO (technical knockout) against Russia’s Denis Kanakov in round 1 of an Absolute Championship Berkut (ACB 86) lightweight bout. With this loss, Badakhshi’s record is now 8 wins and 2 losses, and Kakanov’s record improves to 9 wins and 1 loss. Furthermore, with this win, Kakanov is now victorious over two well known Afghan MMA fighters. On August 26, 2017, he had defeated Ahmad Wali Hotak via TKO in round 3.

Mubariz

Apparently, Kanakov’s victory over two Afghans back to back did not sit well with another popular Afghan MMA fighter, Baz Mohammad Mubariz. Mubariz posted a public challenge to the victorious Kakanov, so he can avenge the losses of his Afghan compatriots.  Mubariz posted the public challenge on his own Facebook page in Dari.  Ahmad Wali Hotak retorted by throwing some shade at Mubariz by commenting that Kakanov told him that he doesn’t understand Dari and that Mubariz should challenge him in Russian.  Mubariz did later post his challenge in Russian, and he also wrote that he had contacted the ACB organization requesting a fight against Kakanov. He said he is waiting for an answer from them.

As for Badakhshi, after the fight, he was very humble and apologized to his fans for his loss, and pointed out that the fighting business comes with wins and losses. He thanked all of his fans for their prayers and encouragement, while promising to improve and come back even stronger. Badakhshi wasn’t very happy with Mubariz’s challenge, and felt disappointed. He said he would rather have had Mubariz give him words of encouragement, instead of posting challenges on Facebook.

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