Tofiq Musayev (born December 15, 1989) is an Azerbaijani professional mixed martial artist, competing in the Lightweight division of Bellator MMA. As of November 22, 2022, he is #3 in the Bellator Lightweight Rankings.
Early life
Tofiq Musayev was born in Sahil, Azerbaijan. Even at school, due to the minimum number of sports sections, he went to karate and later with pankration, kung-fu and taekwondo. Initially having success at the regional level, Musaev decided to devote himself completely to sanda, therefore, after graduating from school in 2007, he entered the sports academy. He became Asian Pankration champion in 2016 and world champion in Kung-fu, while studying at the Azeribaijan Sports Academy from 2007 to 2011. He is blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Mixed martial arts career
Early career
Since MMA was something new in Azerbaijan, and there were no well-trained fighters for sparring and training, Tofiq experienced certain difficulties getting used to the new format fights. Made his professional debut at the Azerbaijan MMA Federation in May 2013. When he was suddenly selected for the main event in that match, he achieved a vivid heel hold in 1R and won his debut match. His main problem was the defense on the ground, because in the first 6 fights, he filled himself with a 3–3 record, losing by submission in two cases out of three. Starting with the Ukrainian Oplot Challenge events, the athlete began to travel to Russia and perform there.
Also, he did not forget about the Motherland, where little by little, MMA tournaments began to gain popularity among the audience and his talent blossomed when he refined his fighting style, which is based on his strong punches . In 2016, Musaev made his first trip to China, where he had a couple of performances before being spotted at the WFCA. And, it is worth recognizing, with the arrival of a newcomer to the organization, the light weight had found a new potential contender.
Things were going well for Tofiq in Russia, in his debut he defeated Murad Shakhbaev, after which he went to Turkey for one fight, where he performed at the big Orion Fight Arena tournament, but then returned to the WFCA, as he planned to take the belt there. The next step for him was the meeting with Zurab Betergaraev, but the application for the status of the applicant was made in the confrontation with Marif Piraev.
Having sent him to a technical knockout already in the first round, Musaev waited for proposals from the promotion, but they never came. Not wanting to wait for the leadership's decision on the fight with the champion, the Azerbaijani responded to the call of another league, very famous in Japan - RIZIN Fighting Federation to sign him for their New Year's Eve event for 2018.
RIZIN Fighting Federation
Musayev made his RIZIN debut at Rizin 14 against Nobumitsu Osawa as the opening bout of the night. He won by TKO in the 2nd round, using ground and pound to finish the bout.
He was scheduled to face 13-fight UFC veteran and TUF: Live Team Faber contestant Daron Cruickshank at Rizin 16. He won by unanimous decision.
Lightweight Grand Prix
RIZIN announced that they would be hosting a Lightweight Grand Prix from September. Tofiq was 1 of 8 participants announced. On September 20, 2019, Tofiq was drawn against former XFC & Brace Lightweight champion and 6-fight UFC veteran Damien Brown at Rizin 19 as the quarterfinal match. He won by TKO in the final minute of the first round, using a head kick and punches to score the stoppage.
At RIZIN.20, Musayev took on former MCC Lightweight champion and 6-fight UFC veteran Johnny Case in the semi-finals. Musayev dropped Case early in the 1st round and followed up with strikes to force referee to intervene. In the finals, he met Bellator Lightweight title challenger Patricky Freire. An exciting back-and-forth battle ended in a unanimous decision victory for the underdog Musaev (despite breaking his hand in the second round), and the Lightweight Grand Prix belt. His performance earned him widespread attention from his home country as the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Ismail Ismayilov to congratulate him, as well as the global MMA audience as he was considered one of the best lightweights outside of the UFC (Fight Matrix ranked him #13 globally and the best outside the UFC).