Apparently he has sign with the UFC today. Also said he is a blackbelt in Bjj.

How could he have a legit black in BJJ while training full time in wrestling all of these years? Who did he get it from? I say BS.

This could go two ways. It could go the Cormier, Lawal, Askren way or it could go the Gaber, Matt Ghaffari, Kurdanidze way. I say the latter.

Another report on twitter said the ufc said it was nonsense, i doubt gatsalov is bjj black belt how many black belts are there in vladikavkaz? The time put in to get a black belt would take away from his wrestling. If he did enter mma it wouldn't take long for him to get to the highest level if he trained at the top gyms in the us and not germany like romero.

I would bet within a year of training, gatsalov could beat black belts in competition. It took me 2 years of training to defeat my first blackbelt in grappling. I would guess that Gatsalov's speed, size, and hip control at the weigh tclass would be superior to mine.

Few months ago, one of the sherdog forum members spread the "information" that M. Lopez switched to MMA. )))
In the full message about Gatsalov signing with UFC, it's written that he himself announced this on his facebook page. He doesn't have any. ))

Actually there is big news from Russia: about possible (!) come back of Adam Saitiev. It was his brother Buvaisar who announced this yesterday in a special interview for a sport news agency later posted also on the site of the Russian federation (in Russian).

Originally Posted by dirtyholt

I would bet within a year of training, gatsalov could beat black belts in competition. It took me 2 years of training to defeat my first blackbelt in grappling. I would guess that Gatsalov's speed, size, and hip control at the weigh tclass would be superior to mine.

No doubt, its a match between two different species. I can't help but laugh thinking of gatsalov using twitter or facebook.