On today within the historical past of the Final Preventing Championship, the previous bodyguard of Jeffrey Epstein suffered a lightning-quick loss to a legendary UFC champion who had a public beef with Dana White. The combatants in query are Frank Shamrock and Igor Zinoviev, with the previous having a divisive relationship with White whereas the latter was concerned with Epstein.
On Friday, March thirteenth, 1998, UFC 16: Battle within the Bayou transpired at Pontchartrain Middle in Kenner, Louisiana with Shamrock defending his crown towards Zinoviev within the evening’s headliner. Defending what was then referred to as the middleweight strap however is acknowledged traditionally as the sunshine heavyweight title, Shamrock notched an emphatic protection and did so in lower than thirty seconds.
A crushing slam turned out the lights on Zinoviev with a damaged collarbone occurring happening in the course of the explosive change. After some follow-up floor and pound punches linked, the referee waved off the motion twenty-two seconds in, declaring Frank Shamrock the victor and nonetheless UFC champion.
The post-UFC, Epstein path that Igor Zinoviev took
After his bid for UFC championship glory fell quick and following the devastating nature of his defeat to Shamrock involving the harm sustained inside, the sambo and judo specialist hung up his gloves. Zinoviev then spent the early 2000’s navigating the world of personal safety. For round half a decade, Zinoviev served because the bodyguard, in addition to the motive force, amongst a number of roles for the disgraced mass felony.
A number of victims have beforehand recognized Zinoviev as part of Epstein’s employees, and referring to the serial sexual predator, the previous fighter posited that the reason for dying wasn’t precisely portrayed publicly. Zinoviev talked about this throughout a 2019 interview that happened with New York Post, as the previous MMA fighter quipped,
“Any person helped him to try this. That’s going just a little too deep.”
Zinoviev claimed to have by no means seen Epstein with underage ladies in an interview with the MMA Historical past Podcast from 2024. The controversial combatant was by no means charged criminally in relation to his connection to the predatory financier.
