While Oleg Taktarov can be considered an early influence for Russian fighters interested in pursuing a career in MMA, he tried to remain influential by running the MMA Federation of Russia, with the goal of creating a bridge between Russian talent and potential opportunities in the United States.

However, the Federation has seemingly come under fire from other organizations in Russia, which is why they have not been able to get accredited again recently. One of the complaints was that Taktarov apparently condoned training children in MMA from a young age.

"We were holding amateur tournaments during the last 7 years," Taktarov told Sports.ru. "And we never had a single injury amongst competitors. We accumulated significant experience that we want to share with everyone. Children were divided into groups according to their age. The youngest ones - from 8 years old, didn't hit or punch each other. Most part of the fight they spend grappling each other."

Taktarov was adamant about the safety of the practices he advocates, as the children do not engage in sparing sessions until they are much older.

"Of course all of them compete with protection. All the dangerous actions that can end with injury are forbidden. The rules that are more or less closer to the real MMA when they reach 16-years-old. But anyway there're also forbidden elbows, knees and any punches. If one starts to learn MMA from the childhood, he will come to the grown-up age having a certain base. The main purpose, of course, is safety of the training process for the kid."

The retired fighter-turned-actor simply could not understand how advocating MMA from the age of 18.

"Let me ask our great Champions - would they manage to be where they are now if they started learning MMA from so late? What I can see now is that all the actions they perform are to make sure our young fighters not to be able to win major competitions all over the world.

As for Taktarov's latest project, he intends to popularize Sambo tournaments in the United States by promoting tournaments all over the country.

"I'm preparing a large-scale project based in the USA that will work for two markets - USA and Russia. The main feature of this project will be the development of SAMBO and its adaptation it to the commercial market and modern tournaments. In fact we are now creating brand new kind of sport. But it will have different positioning in USA and Russia.

"The main benefit is that we won't depend on anyone anymore."

Transcription taken from Sports.ru.