Nikolay Nikolayevich Zuev

Year of birth Year of death Place of birth Clubs Athletic title
1958 2022 с. Bogdanovka, Totsky District, Orenburg Region “Uralmash” (Sverdlovsk)
Master of Sports of Russia of International Class
Biography

In his childhood in Belgorod Region, he practiced freestyle wrestling, some elements of which he later transferred to sambo. In his teens, he was fond of hiking and in the mid-1970s he even made a two-week group trekking to the famous Dyatlov Pass, which turned out to be rather risky for him.

He started practicing sambo when he was 20. He played for Sverdlovsk club “Uralmash”. In the early and middle 1980s, he was honored as one of the strongest representatives of the Sverdlovsk school of sambo. He was considered the unsurpassed master of ground wrestling. Until the age of 34, he was a member of the USSR national sambo team.

From 1993 to 2000 he fought in the Professional International Fighting League "RINGS" in Japan, had over 40 fights (medalist of the IPBL "RINGS") and coached professional wrestlers in the clubs of Japan. 

In 1993 he founded the sports company "RINGS - Ekaterinburg", which was engaged in organizing and conducting sports spectacular exclusive events on a professional level. Leaving sports at the age of 42, he turned into a successful businessman becoming one of the pioneers of sports management in the Urals. Among his hobbies was traveling, automobile tourism, and writing poems and essays.

He graduated from the Sverdlovsk Engineering and Pedagogical Institute.

His death was an irreplaceable loss for all of us.

Landmark achievements

  • Winner of the World Cup (1984) 
  • 4-time Winner of International Tournaments (1983-1985) 
  • Winner of the USSR Cup (1983, 1985) 
  • Bronze Winner of the USSR Championship (1983, 1986, 1987) 
  • National Champion of the RSFSR (1983) 
  • Winner of the Sports Contest of the RSFSR Nations (1983) 
  • Winner of the Cup of the RSFSR (1984)