Oleg  Taktarov is a former UFC champion. He won the UFC 6 tournament. He notably dfeated Marco Ruas, Tank Abbott, Mark Kerr, and Anthony Macias.

Takatarov is Master of Sport and 3rd Dan Black Belt in Judo, Master of Sport in Sambo,  4th Dan Black Belt in (Japanese) Ju-Jitsu.

In 1998 Taktarov competed in ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship. Takatarov had previously trained with Brazilian jiu-jitsu champions Wallid Ismail, Ricardo Liborio and Carlos Barreto.

Taktarov fought a grappling “superfight” with multiple times BJJ and. ADCC champion Mario Sperry, who ended up defeating Taktarov on points after passing his guard.

In this video, Takatarov was asked about what he thought about Rickson Gracie. Taktarov revealed that Rickson Gracie taught him a valuable lesson.

Rickson Gracie was successful in MMA in Japan at the same time as Taktarov as he was was winning vale tudo tournaments in Japan with relative ease (although arguably against weaker opponents).

Interviewer:
“When you went to brazil you rolled with Rickson Gracie am I correct?”

Taktarov:
“No never.”

“You never went to his gym?”

“No no i’ve been i’ve been. I’ve been to his gym and actually Rickson doesn’t even know about it but he taught me a lesson on how to be humble because after winning the ufc I thought i’m the king of the world and when we met he said “congratulations on your success in the ufc” so I thought my success is just worldwide it’s beyond anything yeah but it was just a sentence congratulations on your success at just calm me down. It’s great!”

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