“I brought both flags with me.” Guskov – about victory under the flags of Russia and Uzbekistan

UFC light heavyweight Bogdan Guskov representing Russia and Uzbekistan, told how after the fight he placed the flags of both states in the octagon.

In March 2022, the UFC banned fighters from displaying national banners at tournaments; the decision was overturned in the fall of 2023. Guskov knocked out Zach Pauga at the UFC Fight Night 236 tournament and, after the fight, brought the flags of Russia and Uzbekistan into the octagon. The fighter was born and raised in Dukent, but moved to Moscow at the age of 19, where he began to seriously engage in martial arts, making his MMA debut in December 2015.

— You raised the Russian and Uzbek flags after the battle. I always wondered how this was done technically, how two flags were sewn into one?

— I brought both flags with me. According to the regulations, you can only raise one flag after the battle, but that means one [тканевое] canvas, but with the flags of two states. In other words, this does not mean that the flag has to be that of only one country – there cannot be two separate flags. And before the tournament, the UFC has a kind of workshop, a technical corner: we get equipment for the fight and we can go to them to cut something, hem something, sew something. There are masters there and they tell you they can help you. And you can sew the flag in two ways: on the horizontal sides and vertically. I thought it would be better the way I did it.

— Do you remember where you bought the flags?

— These are flags from my old performances – I have been going out with two flags for a long time. I’ve always had them, for about five years to be exact. Now I don’t even remember where exactly they came from, but it seems to me that finding two flags in Russia is not the biggest problem,” Guskov told .

Live broadcasts of mixed martial arts tournaments can be seen on and Match! Fighter”, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.