[6] He started competing in those disciplines during his obligatory military service, at one point also becoming a hand-to-hand instructor for the KGB,[7] until he retired at 22 in order to become a businessman.

However, according to Taktarov, in 1989 he would find himself attracted to a jacketed mixed martial arts event called Jujutsu Full Contact, whose four first editions he won in dominant fashion.

[6] In October 1993, Taktarov and a training partner participated in the White Dragon MMA tournament in Latvia, but were forced to flee from the country due to political tensions.

Taktarov next contacted the UFC management in order to participate himself for the prize money, being advised that he was already familiar with that kind of competition and had a chance of winning.

[7] His first fight was against Kempo Karate expert Ernie Verdicia, whom Oleg quickly submitted by pulling guard, sweeping him between his strikes, and locking an arm triangle choke for the tapout.

He advanced round to meet Greco-Roman wrestler Dan Severn, but Taktarov's injured knee limited his performance, already disadvantaged by 55 lbs.

Severn took the Russian down, passed his guard and blocked him against the cage wall, where Taktarov was repeatedly hit with knee strikes and headbutts while he tried to look for submissions.

Although Beneteau took Oleg down and stunned him momentarily with punches, Taktarov answered by scoring his own takedown and tapping him out with a guillotine choke in the scramble.

His next bout was originally against Patrick Smith, but an injury forced the latter to be replaced by Anthony Macias, who shared promoter and training ground with Taktarov.

[10] In any case, Taktarov went to the main event of the night, being pitted against the much larger fighter Tank Abbott in what commentators called a "skill vs. strength" match.

[11] The bout was hard-fought, with Abbott dominating the grappling exchanges and scoring punches while Taktarov remained patient and counterattacked with a variety of strikes and submission attempts.

[11] As with the previous fight, Taktarov displayed an important amount of toughness while defending from the bottom, spending most of the match laying defensively on his guard while receiving punishment.

The match was lengthy and slow, with Taktarov trying repeatedly to take Ruas to the ground while the Brazilian caused damage with strikes and made Oleg bleed.

[11] The Wrestler then scored headbutts and knee strikes from dominant positions until the end of the bout, including an overtime controlled by way of Boxing, which granted him the decision.

[11] Taktarov returned from Brazil with a broken hand, only to find out his manager had put him on a fight against Renzo Gracie for Martial Arts Reality Superfighting in ten days notice.

[11] In 1997, Taktarov traveled back to Brazil to fight decorated ADCC grappler Sean Alvarez in the Pentagon Combat event.

[11] However, he got sent to another match in short notice, this time to Japan in the first ever Pride 1 show on 11 October 1997, facing Canadian heavyweight and UFC veteran Gary Goodridge.

[19] Taktarov more recently starred in Den of Thieves (as Alexi), Robert Rodriguez's franchise sequel, Predators, directed by Nimród Antal.