murad machaev was born on december 3, 1986, in the former soviet union, dagestan assr, makhachkala in modern-day dagestan, russia. before student life he began trained in freestyle wrestling but join to sambo. he lost to amirkhan mazihov in 68 kg final match and became silver medal in southern federal district combat sambo championships 2007 in armavir, krasnodar krai, russia.