On the night of March 8-9, the UFC mixed martial arts tournament was held in Las Vegas (USA, Nevada), which was won by Magomed Ankalaev, an athlete from Dagestan. He fought for the title of champion in a duel with Brazilian professional fighter Alex Pereira. UFC is the largest American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company.
Ankalaev is a Muslim by religion. He won the championship during the month of Ramadan, the strict 30–day fast of Eid, when the faithful can eat and drink only after sunset and before dawn. Such a meal schedule is difficult for ordinary people, not to mention athletes.
Immediately after the victory, Magomed Ankalaev confessed that he had been forced to break his fast this year. “Ramadan is a holy month for Muslims. Everyone fasts from morning to evening, goes to the mosque at night, and prays. I accepted the fight because I didn’t choose the date myself and didn’t want to miss the opportunity. We don’t know when I would have been given a fight later. And I decided not to miss the opportunity, no matter how hard it was,” Ankalaev said.
At the same time, other Russian Muslim MMA fighters from Dagestan, UFC champions of different years, such as Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev, postponed their fights if they fell on Ramadan. For example, in 2024, Makhachev did not participate in the April UFC 300 tournament and met with American Dustin Poirier only in June at UFC 302. Another Dagestani, Haji Omargadzhiev, decided to fight the UFC in Ramadan in April 2022, but lost to Brazilian Cayo Borrallo. Omargadzhiev attributed his failure to fasting. “The climate in Vegas is very dry. It is very difficult for fighters to train and fast. In springtime, we pour water, and if we fast, then this is naturally problematic. Due to the dry climate, dehydration can occur. I’ve come across this myself–I used to wake up at night with cramps. When you fast, the body gets some stress. My physical characteristics were not the same. I got tired quickly because my body was exhausted,” he told reporters after the fight.
There is still no clear answer in the Islamic community about whether it is necessary for a Muslim athlete to fast during Ramadan. Some Sharia jurists believe that there should be no concessions for athletes. This opinion, for example, is shared by Kazan imam Shavkat Abubekerov, who believes that sport is more “an entertainment hobby, just like theater, and indulgences are given only to people who do hard work, as well as for representatives of those professions on which people’s lives depend.”
There is another example. When the Olympic Games were held in London in 2012, the competition also fell on the holy month. The deputy chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Rushan Abbyasov, in a conversation with journalists, then pointed out the exceptions to the observance of Ramadan, which are allowed for Muslims. “The holy Qur’an says that if a person is sick or on a journey, he is allowed not to observe the holy days of Ramadan for a certain number of days. And upon return, this person must reimburse the missed number of days. In this situation, athletes are primarily viewed as travelers,” Abbyasov explained.
In April 2022, during a German football Bundesliga match between Leipzig and Hoffenheim, the referee interrupted the game immediately after sunset so that Leipzig defender Mohammed Simakan, who was fasting at the time, could drink water and refresh himself with a nutritional bar. But there are not so many compliant referees. Sometimes athletes have to go to various tricks. For example, the goalkeeper of the Tunisian national football team, Mouez Assan, faked injuries in 2018 so that his teammates could refresh themselves while he was receiving medical treatment.
The practice of interrupting football tournaments after sunset if there are Muslims in the teams is now common in the UK. In 2023, France also launched an initiative to allow pauses in matches immediately after sunset so that Muslim players could at least drink water. However, the football league of the Fifth Republic did not support this proposal. And the head coach of Nantes, Antoine Comboire, decided on a radical measure: he expelled defender Jauan Hajam from the team for refusing to talk on the day of the game.
The scientific community also took care of the problem of Muslim athletes during Eid. Ron Mogan, a professor of sports and a nutritionist at Loughborough University, studied the effect of fasting on the results of athletes who participated in the Olympic Games in London in 2012. The study showed that fasting has the greatest effect on the activity of athletes engaged in those disciplines where high-intensity training is required. In particular, marathon runners showed the worst results. According to the Leipzig University of Sports Medicine, 80% of Muslim athletes have decreased endurance during Ramadan, 70% have concentration problems, and 60% have poor sleep quality, which directly affects the athlete’s performance.
However, it was not possible to identify the relationship between fasting and performance in sports with more complex dynamics, such as football. A study conducted by the FIFA Center for Medical Assessment and Research showed that young male football players who fasted during Ramadan in a controlled environment showed no changes in their physical and physiological parameters, as well as a decrease in their well-being.
Nevertheless, experts, including both health workers and coaches, have developed their recommendations for fasting athletes. For example, they advised rescheduling all training sessions for the evening and night periods. This was especially true for MMA fighters, as they lose a lot of fluid during intensive training. At the beginning of the day, athletes need to drink plenty of water. For example, Belal Muhammad, a mixed martial artist, admitted that he drank more than two liters of liquid before dawn.
Nutritionists also believe that during Ramadan, it is important for athletes to focus not on quantity, but on the quality of nutrition. At this time, it is better to exclude fatty, spicy, and sweet foods, and focus on foods high in fat, carbohydrates, and fiber. Caffeine lovers should also refrain from drinks such as coffee, energy drinks, and even black tea, as they cause dehydration.
Trainers, in turn, recommend reducing the difficulty of exercises during the fasting period, especially in the early days, so that the body adapts comfortably. And according to doctors, much attention should be paid to sleep during Ramadan. They recommend going back to bed after getting up in the morning and eating, as this will replenish energy for evening and night workouts.
