Vener Zaynullovich Galiev (; ) born 1 July 1975) is a Russian amateur wrestler, sambist and mixed martial artist. He started his professional mixed martial arts career in 2004.
Early life and martial arts career
Galiev was born to a working class Bashkir family and started his competitive sports career in Greco-Roman wrestling, becoming the Bashkortostan champion. He later participated in Combat Sambo and Unifight on the international level. Galiev became the Combat Sambo World Champion (74 kg) at 2008 World Sambo Championships and 2009 World Sambo Championships.
On 5 December 2009, he participated in the Combat Sambo rules category of the special event Bitva Chempionov IV of the Russian Martial Arts Association in Moscow and defeated the 2009 European Combat Sambo Champion Paul Lening of Germany by points. On 19 November 2010, Galiev faced Dagestan Kudo world champion (76 kg) and mixed martial artist Shamkhal Kerimov in an amateur MMA bout at Bitva Chempionov V in Moscow and defeated his opponent by split decision. On 5 November 2011, he participated in the event Bitva 5 held in Moscow and beat Roman Bagdasaryan in a bout under kickboxing rules.
Galiev holds International Class Master of Sports rank in Combat Sambo and Unifight, as well as Master of Sports rank in Greco-Roman wrestling.
Personal life
Galiev works as a police lieutenant in Ufa. He is married to Alena and has a son named Timur.
Championships and accomplishments
Unifight
International Amateur Federation of Unifight
Unifight European Champion.
ARB (Army Hand-to-Hand Combat) Russian Union of Martial Arts 3rd Place Russia Championship.
Sambo
All-Russian Sambo Federation
Combat Sambo Russian National Champion. Russian Combat Sambo National Championships 2nd Place (2010) Federation International Amateur de Sambo (FIAS) Combat Sambo World Champion.