Rafael Fiziev left police job over corruption before UFC career

Rafael Fiziev walked away from his dream job as a Kyrgyz police officer within months after seeing what he describes as widespread corruption that blocked him from fighting drug dealers.

Fiziev, who knocked out Manuel Torres with a spinning back kick at UFC Baku last weekend, told Ariel Helwani that he spent a decade preparing for law enforcement only to quit after academically weaker recruits allegedly paid bribes for better posts while he wrote parking tickets. "I went to work and saw all of this corruption in the Kyrgyzstan police," Fiziev said on The Ariel Helwani Show, per Sherdog. "Zero justice — 100% corruption. I said, 'What the f*ck? I don't want to be here.'"

How bribery derailed Fiziev's police ambitions

The lightweight striker graduated from the police academy hoping to target organized crime but claims officers with lesser qualifications bought their way into specialized units. Fiziev believes his appearance worked against him in a system he describes as rotten from the inside. "The people who didn't study well just paid money to be in good positions," he said. "I studied hard. I tried to become a smart, good officer. But because of corruption — and because I have blue eyes and white skin — they wouldn't put me in a good position."

Fiziev left the force after a couple of months and turned to professional MMA full-time. Now 14-5 in his career, he stopped Torres 15 seconds into the second round in Azerbaijan despite vision problems from a first-round jab. The knockout marked his return after a year-long layoff.

Fiziev had no plans to revisit fighting until his law enforcement dreams collapsed. "If that hadn't happened, I would've been a full-time police officer," he said. "One hundred percent."

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• Sherdog — Rafael Fiziev reveals why he left police officer job