ASA fighter Adam Bogatyrev recalled how he almost died as a child

Russian MMA fighter Adam Bogatyrev who plays in the ASA league, recalled a story from his childhood that could lead to the death of a future athlete.

Bogatyrev made his MMA debut in April 2017 and was later forced to leave the sport for two years due to a shoulder injury. The athlete grew up in Ingushetia, where he was engaged in wrestling, and continued his training in Moscow in the combat sambo section after moving to Moscow in 2011.

—I grew up in Ingushetia, in the village of Troitskaya, now it is a rural urban-type settlement. We had our own house and our own garden: potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, apples. Country life. There were always a few cows, a few bulls and up to 30 goats, geese – about 100, chickens, turkeys, ducks.

In the summer, we devoted ourselves mainly to agriculture. There was a river about 150 meters from my house. I either spent all my time on the river or somewhere out in the field. We also had a so-called stadium. But what we actually understand today as a stadium and what it was back then are two completely different images. Here you have cows grazing, and next to you you have built a ball and you hit it by placing two stones. One person stands in front of the goal, the other kicks the so-called ball into the so-called stadium. I studied at secondary school No. 1 until 2007, and in the seventh grade I moved to the gymnasium in the town of Karabulak, located five to seven kilometers from my village.

“All children who grow up alone with nature have cases where everything could have ended very badly. You had?

“When I was herding cows, there was a federal road nearby and I sometimes had to run across it. There were times when you were about to do it…and it felt like a car almost ran you over. We also have a mountain river called Assa… We swam in it, and if you go in the wrong direction you could get carried away… Even the horses were swept away there, the river is turbulent. There were times I could have drowned. Once we went swimming in Sunzha, I was one of the youngest boys. Meter with cap height. And there were stones laid there in such a way that everything seemed to be level, and then there was a steep cliff. I jumped in and boom, I’m gone. I keep thinking: if they don’t find me, I will die. And if I remember correctly, the guy’s name was Gilani, he pulls me by the hair with the words: “What are you doing here?” And I’m panicked, I just hugged him… I probably didn’t go near the river for about two months,” Bogatyrev told .

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