How A Cold DM Led to Hanging Out with a UFC Star
In September 2018, Russian UFC Fighter Zabit Magomedsharipov was slated to fight Brandon Davis in my hometown of Dallas, Texas. The currently ranked #3 Featherweight was rising to stardom, already being dubbed the next Dagestani sensation. Seeing that he was coming to fight in my city, I decided to make a move.
I knew that he would arrive in Dallas a few days early to settle in before his big fight. Without expecting much, I sent Zabit a private message on Instagram about visiting my local mosque, one of the largest in the city.
Truthfully, I didn’t think he would answer a random DM from a nobody (me). However, I felt there was a small chance that he would want to explore a foreign country and meet fellow Muslims with his free time instead of sitting in his hotel room until the fight.
During one of my frequent checks to see if he replied, a small
seen 11:02 pm
appeared in the corner of the chat. I stared at the screen, waiting for an answer, but sadly realized that it probably wasn’t happening.
Suddenly, I had a rush of inspiration. I feverishly copied the text I had sent and ran it through google translate to Russian, a language I didn’t know a word of.
He read the message and replied with “Let’s meet tonight.” Ecstatic, I messaged my friends to “come to the masjid tonight” without revealing the surprise.
Zabit told me to pick him up and gave me the address of his hotel, then suddenly informed me that not just him, but two other friends would be coming with us too.
Embarrassingly, I became slightly intimidated about taking three Russian fighters in my car with whom I couldn’t even communicate. I decided to ask a friend to come with me.
We pulled up to the hotel and met Zabit and his friends in the lobby. I was awestruck that this was happening, even with the language barrier making things a little awkward.
While driving at the masjid, my friend and I mainly communicated with Zabit and his friends in incomprehensible grunts and hand motions. Somehow, we were able to understand that the older man was his coach, and the other friend was his teammate and fellow professional fighter, Magomed Magomedov.
The timing of Zabit’s visit was perfectly in line with the launch of my then-new Islamic clothing brand, Ihsan Company. After we parked, I gave some of my first-ever shirts as gifts to my guests, and got some good early publicity for my brand!
We arrived to the Masjid just in time for Maghrib prayer. After we completed the prayer, I rose up to the microphone and announced our special guest.
The community embraced Zabit and his friends, and we made a collective prayer for his success in the upcoming fight (which he won in a second-round submission). Many fellow UFC fans in the audience snapped photos with him, and even those who didn’t know of him shook his hand warmly.
I took Zabit and his crew along with some friends to a local Halal restaurant, where the owner didn’t even let us pay for the meal. Zabit, on dietary restrictions before the fight, ordered some grilled chicken and a salad.
This experience taught me that the bond between fellow Muslims is extremely strong, no matter what country we come from or language we speak. I am continually astonished by how close one can feel to someone else knowing nothing about them aside from their commitment to their faith.
Common belief in Allah is our most powerful uniting factor as humans.
