Eastern Europe has a tradition of using basketball as a good warm up for wrestling. This is in part due to the fact that wrestling practice often takes place at schools – which tend to have an indoor basketball court.
This provided room for the birth of a new sport – which combines rugby basketball warm up with the setting of an MMA cage. Someone in the Eastern block used this unique approach to invent a new hybrid sport called “batyr ball”.
The hybrid sport is not exactly new but promotion Naiza FC pioneered broadcasting it. Naiza is a Kazakhstan-based MMA promotion. And despite the distance, they managed to get the Nurmagomedov team to show up – complete with UFC stars in tow.
While Khabib didn’t compete, he was there cheering on the team honoring his late father.
This sport easily went viral due to unique style. However, some fans are confused when they watch it at first, especially about the rules.
Rules appear to be mimicking half court basketball – with wrestling exchanges encouraged and of course without the submissions. The accent in wrestling exchanges, is getting to the ball.
Recently, a team representing Khabib’s late father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, won a batyr ball tournament. The team was called “Abdulmanap School” and competed against “Motivator Takhtay” on December 9.
Khabib Nurmagomedov also attended the tournament. The former UFC lightweight champion can be seen sitting in the front seat giving support to his father’s students.
The entire event is available to watch online.