The FF-Files: What’cha Gonna Do When They Come for You?
”Bad boys, bad boys, what’cha gonna do? What’cha gonna do when they come for you? Bad boys, bad boys, what’cha gonna do? What’cha gonna do when they come for you?” – Inner Circle, “Bad Boys”
This is the story of a bad boy, known in the fight game as “Bad Boy.” The 27-year-old from the Aksy region of Kyrgyzstan, and currently living in St. Petersburg, Russia, has been an especially active fighter since turning pro in late 2016. His successes have been limited, while his failures multiple. Unlike most to compete in this sport, however, he did not accept his defeats. As the results were legitimate, he could not contest them, so he and his team devised another plan: use his own name as a tool to change the trajectory of his career.
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His name? Take your pick. On the Sherdog Fight Finder database, after substantial scouring and review, his name is registered as Bektursun Kaiypnazar. This matches his current Instagram handle. On fight documentation, his given name has displayed as Bektursun as well as these others: Beksultan, Bekturkan, Bektarkan or Bektersun. Any one could be mixed and matched with the surname, which is where things get really complicated.
When it comes to his surname, it is all over the map. Askar
Mozharov,
also known as Arthur Shadakov, has nothing on this man. Add a
“Y,” subtract an “I,” or attach or remove “ov” from the end of the
Kyrgyzstani’s surname, and one can run into a myriad of
combinations. The inclusion or exclusion of Uulu, which means “son
of,” multiplied that total. We have encountered Kaipnazar,
Kaipnazarov, Kaypnazar, Kaypnazarov, Kaiypnazar – the current one –
and Kaiypnazarov, as well as Kayipnazar, Kayipnazarov, Kapnazar and
even Kaiptasarov. Several of those names have individual profiles
on various international fight databases to this date. Despite
this, he is always “Bad Boy,” no matter how else anyone spells or
announces him.
One of his more recent appearances in April, about the same time this new investigation kicked into high gear, he stepped in at a co-promoted WEF-KPF event and faced Gabib Agayev. A fairly simple, nondescript armbar concluded the match, as Kaiypnazar charged recklessly into takedowns, falling into submission setups until one snared him. Note the surname: Kayipnazara. Did we list that one above?
In fact, an unscrupulous manager attempted to change both the fighter’s name and photograph to someone else as recent as April in an effort to manipulate his profile and record. This was rejected at the gate by our savvy Fight Finder team, and it was this latest form of trickery that prompted an additional audit of the fighter’s profile. As the engine of discovery revved up again, evidence piled up over the course of several months, with obscure video footage, intentionally hidden news articles, edited results and other details that cropped up.
For a time, the fighter had succeeded in crafting multiple false identities, including a now-empty page named Bektarkan Kapnazar, which housed seven defeats without no wins – the triumphs, of course, were stacked on his original profile. Another was called Beksultan Kaipnazarov, which turned out to be one more dumping ground for a slew of early losses. The latter can be seen in the example above, as the promotion that he competed for many times in WEF could not seem to get his name straight. It’s anyone’s guess if a WEF employee saw him at the aforementioned WEF-KPF fight card and recognized him as a frequent flier. Considering his name differed under its banner, it seems unlikely.
Above is one of the rare instances where his name was spelled correctly, at least as far as current records indicate. He faced Mark Vologdin at MMA Series 15 in 2020, and his corner threw in the towel for him at the end of the second round where he was nearly put away. It was one of the few times his corner ever looked out for him professionally, unless one counts record manipulation to the level that he could even fool Eagle FC into signing him.
In what amounted to his highest profile appearance to date, the sub-.500 Kaiypnazar snuck on Eagle FC 36, and he as a bantamweight fought a lightweight in Kazan, Russia. He had competed once before for Eagle FC the year before, but lower on the card. Unsurprisingly, he did not make it out of the first round. The then-unbeaten prospect in front of him, Ramazan Amaev, drilled him with a flying knee that ripped open an inch-long cut on his forehead, forcing the doctors to promptly call it. Eagle did not list write out his record for that bout, perhaps because they knew something was amiss, as he was something like 10-19 at the time. He had even tricked that league in the past when it was once known as Gorilla Fighting, with a 3-1 record flashing on his 2019 Tale of the Tape image when he was actually 7-11.
Whether due to craftiness, convincing arguments, falsified footage or something else, the result of the title fight atop PFC’s Gladiator 6 card in Russia was mistaken on both sides of the bracket. While the fictional fighter billed as Bektarkan was registered as having tapped to strikes, the victor was a bit off-kilter too. Initially, Aidarbek Kabylov was set as having prevailed, but it was actually Aslanbek Karov. A small but important distinction, and one that has since been corrected. Here, one can also see “Bad Boy” billed as Kayipnazar, with the “Y” before the “I” as if it were violating a mnemonic rule taught in grade school.
All the way back in July 2020, a good Samaritan-slash-interested party reached out to the Sherdog Fight Finder team about Kaiypnazar. He cautioned the staff to “be careful,” because this fighter was pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. The information he submitted at the time was questionable, and it became clear he was trying to help fighters from his camp, so it did not entirely check out. As it turns out now, some of his details were in fact accurate, while others were strangely incorrect.
Last year, the FF-Files piece titled “Moissanite, Spurious, Not Genuine” broke down several totally fictional events submitted to the Fight Finder team. One of the tales ripped into the Azerbaijan-based organization Ased Fighting Championship, who had the gall to send in a full event billing for a show called “Fight Against COVID-19” that never actually happened. Why does this matter? Ased also claimed Kaiypnazar, then on Sherdog at 8-9, as one of its victors. His match was “featured” at a show called “Contender 3” which was supposed to showcase young fighters with limited experience. They listed that he won by TKO at 2:18 of the first round over Darun Harunov. Spoiler alert: he never fought there.
Ben
Duffy/Sherdog.com illustration
Does this composite image look familiar? If you have read past FF-Files pieces, it should. One of our very first entries of this revived series, “Of Forgeries and Falsehoods,” cracked into forged documents and bogus results, and Kaiypnazar was indeed featured. Recall in this example, we received a video of an incomplete fight and a cropped screenshot of him getting his hand raised in an obviously different cage to foolishly claim it was legitimate. It was just another log on the fire that is Bektursun Kaiypnazar’s career.
The Kyrgyzstan native by way of St. Petersburg still manages to get fights – even Antonio Silva is still getting booked these days despite his repeated misfortunes – but his current skid has transformed him into de factor cannon fodder for up-and-comers. At the end of August this year, “Bad Boy” squared off against Akhmednabi Magomedov at UFL 4 in Dagestan, and the 9-0 Magomedov stifled him until putting Kaiypnazar to sleep with a Von Flue choke in Round 2. Plans within plans had already come together for this gentleman, who had somehow managed to slide his loss onto the nonexistent Bektarkan profile on multiple databases. He even scored a misspelled mention on a major MMA news site, replete with the Bektarkan fake record info, for his foe’s handiwork.
After multiple Fight Finder page merges, corrections, tweaks and updates, everything from this fighter fell into one singular profile. The win total largely stayed the same, unsurprisingly, but he quickly plummeted from a competitor above the .500 line to one well below it. With the Von Flue putting him out of commission in August, “Bad Boy” now posts a professional record on Sherdog Fight Finder of 10-25. This is not what is advertised to the public, yet at least; ahead of his UFL 4 clash with Magomedov, the UFL promotion billed him with an 11-9 pro record.
Losing is a part of life, and there is absolutely no shame in defeat. As the expression goes, it’s not how we fall. It’s how we get back up again. Ex-champion Charles Oliveira dropped eight fights across two weight classes, and encountered several substantial weight issues, in the Octagon, before going on his torrid streak that saw him claim a UFC title and the record for the most submissions in company history. He learned from his setbacks, retooled his game, ironed out the kinks and turned himself into the best lightweight in the world at that time. Were it not for accepting the losses and moving forward, he would not be where he is today. Many fighters could learn from “Do Bronx,” including Kaiypnazar.
If you are a professional fighter that thinks name shenanigans will keep you afloat with a manufactured “clean” record, you are only fooling yourself. Ask Mozharov what it felt like to fake his way into the UFC only to come out with a smashed face and a trashed reputation. If, on the other hand, you want to make sure everything is above board on your Fight Finder profile, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at fightfinder@sherdog.com. We will be more than happy to work with you.
