In an interesting revelation, former UFC star Oleg Taktarov has alleged that he and his entire team were dr*gged before his bout with Renzo Gracie. According to Taktarov, the incident occurred when a man named Alex Rafałski, who he describes as “a veteran of Afghanistan war” with a history of “concussions” and prison time, offered the team tea two hours before the event.
“Two hours before the fight with drinking tea, he said, ‘oh, this is Russian tradition. Let’s see it all in a rounded table. Let’s drink a tea and to good fight,'” Taktarov recalled.
The effects became apparent shortly after, with fighters reporting unusual symptoms.
“Thirty minutes before the fights, they come to me all like, I mean, I feel so sleepy,” Taktarov said, describing how he and other fighters felt unusually disconnected and drowsy. “I feel like I don’t care what was going on. Like, I feel, I want to just go sleep.”
Taktarov believes sleeping pills or something similar was added to the tea, affecting not just him but his entire team. The situation was particularly concerning as many of the other competitors that night weren’t professional athletes but rather “taxi drivers, someone Masush, some construction workers.”
Adding to his difficulties that night, Taktarov was already competing with a broken hand from a previous bout. The combination of the injury and the alleged poisoning severely impacted his performance, ultimately leading to his defeat when he was unable to maintain his grip during a crucial moment in the bout.
Taktarov attributes these circumstances to poor management, revealing that his manager at the time was a dr*ggie who would accept money to arrange bouts for him, even with minimal recovery time between bouts.
The revelations shed new light on what was already considered a controversial chapter in early MMA history, raising serious questions about safety and promotion practices during that era.
