{"id":511,"date":"2023-02-16T18:44:12","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T19:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nial.me\/?p=511"},"modified":"2024-06-04T23:04:54","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T23:04:54","slug":"moscow-based-mma-legend-gives-up-us-citizenship-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nial.me\/index.php\/2023\/02\/16\/moscow-based-mma-legend-gives-up-us-citizenship-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Moscow-based MMA legend gives up US citizenship \u2013 media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Monson became a Russian citizen in 2018 and was elected to political office in Moscow Region<\/strong><\/p>\n

American-born mixed martial arts star Jeff Monson plans to renounce his US citizenship due to his disagreement with Washington’s foreign policy, he told TASS on Thursday.  <\/p>\n

“I disagree with US policies because they interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and people suffer because of this<\/em>,” said the legendary fighter, who was granted Russian citizenship in 2018.  <\/p>\n

“Yes, I have children living in the United States, but I love Russia, I love the Russian people<\/em>,” he told the state news outlet, adding, “I like everything here and I want to be the holder of a Russian passport only.<\/em>” <\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"Monson
Ex-UFC star discusses plans for Donbass film (VIDEO)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Only months after becoming a Russian citizen, Monson was elected as a deputy to the Council of Deputies of the Krasnogorsk district in Moscow Region. He remains a legislator for the region. <\/p>\n

Nicknamed ‘the Snowman’, Monson has won 61 of his 90 fights. He is a former challenger for the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title and a two-time ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship winner. In addition to MMA, he is also a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu world champion.  <\/p>\n

An enthusiast of Russian and Soviet culture who has said he has a “Russian soul<\/em>,” Monson was granted honorary citizenship of the breakaway Republic of Abkhazia in 2016 and received a passport in 2017 to what was then the self-declared Lugansk People’s Republic. He recently filmed and edited a documentary about “the people of Donbass<\/em>” and in September revealed he planned to open sports schools in the Donetsk People’s Republic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff Monson became a Russian citizen in 2018 and was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nial.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nial.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nial.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nial.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nial.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nial.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":516,"href":"http:\/\/nial.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions\/516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nial.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nial.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nial.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nial.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}