When Edmen Shahbazyan started his mixed martial arts journey at age 12, the name that was reigning his division was Anderson Silva. ‘The Golden Boy’ spent his years honing his skills to grace the biggest MMA stage in the world. After his stint on Dana White’s Contender Series 13, the 13-5-0 middleweight fighter got his ticket into the promotion.
Shahbazyan came into the UFC with a lot of furor, with many touting him as a future champion. However, setbacks along the way saw him lose five times, devastatingly, except for his decision loss to Jack Hermansson. Now ‘The Golden Boy’ is looking to change his fortunes at UFC Fight Night 251, where he will take on Dylan Budka. Ahead of his fight, fans are curious about his nationality and ethnicity. So without further ado, let’s get right into it.
Is Edmen Shahbazyan Armenian? Ethnicity and nationality
Edmen Shahbazyan was born to Armenian parents on November 20, 1997. Although he is Armenian by heritage, his birth in the United States means that he’s a US citizen. So we can say that he’s Armenian by ethnicity and American by nationality. However, he is proud of his Armenian heritage and was taken in by Edmond Tarverdyan of Glendale Fighting Club when he was 12. Tarverdyan, the infamous coach of Ronda Rousey, is also of Armenian descent.
In fact, ‘The Golden Boy’ is so proud of his heritage and his ethnic background, that he once got into trouble for sharing his nationalistic sentiments. What exactly happened? Let’s find out.
When Edmen Shahbazyan was punished for carrying a flag to the Octagon
Dana White claims that he doesn’t have a problem with fighters carrying their flags to the Octagon. However, there have been certain instances where some fighters and their flags drew the ire of the UFC officials. Li Jinliang was one such fighter where, in 2022, the Chinese flag was pulled off him following his win over Muslim Salikhov at UFC on ABC 3.
With Edmen Shahbazyan, he was penalized for displaying what was initially thought of as a provincial flag of a region in Armenia, in the cage before his fight against Derek Brunson. It turns out that the flag was of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a disputed territory that the international community recognizes as part of Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh (also known as Artsakh) was an Armenian-majority region that served as the backdrop for the first First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
In fact, back in 2020, when the incident happened, the Consul General for Azerbaijan to the United States, Nasimi Aghayev, posted the following message on Twitter (now X), “On Aug. 1, #Armenian #UFC #athlete @edmenshahbazyan displayed fake “flag” of a fake regime established in #Azerbaijan’s occupied #Karabakh region. The same night I sent a letter of protest to @UFC. Grateful to hear that necessary actions have been taken.” Thus displaying the flag of this region was a politically vulnerable affair and also happened to be against UFC’s rules.
UFC Fires An Employee, Fines Edmen Shahbazyan For Entering Ring With An Artsakh Flag. pic.twitter.com/Tfvf3QWx42
— Zartonk Media (@ZartonkMedia) August 6, 2020
And what was the punishment meted out to ‘The Golden Boy’? According to AXAR.az, he apologized to UFC along with his coaches but there were severe repercussions for the poor employee who allowed him to carry the flag. Edmen Shabazyan also ended up losing his Reebok uniform compliance money ($5,000).
But all that is in the past, including his losses, and ‘The Golden Boy’ is now preparing to get back into the win column at UFC Fight Night 251. He will take on Dylan Budka in the featured bout of the main card. Will he be able to find himself back in the win column on Saturday? Let us know in the comments down below.
The post Where Is Edmen Shahbazyan From? Ethnicity, Flag, Nationality, & More appeared first on EssentiallySports.
