How a viral Flying Squirrel move made Russian wrestler Bozigit Islamgereev an internet sensation

Just like American junior wrestler Ellis Coleman back in 2011, Russian Islamgereev was trailing 5-8 with just 7 seconds left, against Magamadov of France in the semifinals of the competition in Zrenjanin, Serbia. Years of losses and frustration in American high school wrestling had pushed Coleman, raised in rough Chicago back alleys, to devise a highly risky move that he deployed at the World Juniors in Bucharest, Romania. He took it all the way to the Olympics.

In its 2026 iteration, the Russian from Dagestan’s Kostek village had brought out the flying inverted back-hold, the quick hip-snap to flip the axis from head-down to landing feet first, while lifting an unbalanced Magamadov into an involuntary arch that buckled for a 4-pointer takedown. 6-8 became 10-8.

The move, that’s Greco-Roman-coded in style, cracked up his usually stern and sombre coach.

Besides a spot in the finals, Islamgereev had the satisfaction of watching his usually stern and sombre coach break into laughter on the sidelines.

“I think it was the first time in my life I saw him that joyful. I looked at him and he was so happy, literally jumping,” the Russian told The Indian Express via a UWW writer on the spot in Serbia.

“Everyone was shocked. My videos are everywhere now, I can’t even keep up with Instagram anymore, I’m all over the feed,” Islamgereev said.

Instinctive move

The skill to execute, what is clearly a four-part move, needs prior experience, but the Russian stressed it wasn’t formally a drill. “Sometimes in training, I played around and tried something like that. But for it to work like this in competition – this was the first time. This move… I don’t even know what to call it. Honestly, there’s no name for it, it just came up naturally. I would like to name this move after my coach – the ‘Asker Yusupov move.’”

The lead-up to the absolute Houdini-meets-Hercules move was typically downbeat.

“I have a lot of respect for my opponent, Magamadov. Rakhim is a very good wrestler, a very tough one,” Islamgereev says. It was his scratchy start on the mat that in fact brought this on.

“At the beginning of the match, things weren’t going my way. I made a lot of mistakes. There were literally only a few seconds left, probably around 10 seconds, when I pushed him out. Then there were about 7 seconds remaining,” he recalled the pre-ambush.

When the grapplers knocked heads again, Islamgereev knew he just couldn’t get to the Frenchman’s elusive ankles to initiate a leg attack. “I couldn’t get to his legs at all. I thought to myself that since I couldn’t attack from below, I would try from above. So I jumped. It just happened that way. I caught him really well, and he also turned a bit, and I managed to catch him at that moment and score four points. It was very unexpected, but very pleasant. I’m happy that God gave me this,” he said.

In trying to defend stoutly, Magamadov was too low, giving the Russian the brainwave to somersault.

“He was standing very low and I couldn’t make a leg attack. In the end, there were only a couple of seconds left, there was no time to think too much. In that moment, you either take the risk or end up with nothing. I took the risk and went from above. That’s how it happened, I jumped. And that was it,” he explains.

Nothing to lose

Of course, the move could’ve flopped had he not locked the hands around perfectly when launching that spinning cartwheel.

A near imperceptible move at the start will show Islamgereev going for a freestyle feint, before launching the somersault move (daanv). “The main thing is first to fake an attack to the legs and trick him. As soon as he leans down, you need to jump upward so he can’t catch your legs. Then you have to be careful, you need to land on both feet so you can lift him and score four points,” the Russian described.

Till his 9th grade in Kostek village finishing school, Islamgereev trained with talented peers from Dagestan, literally the wrestling capital of the world. After that, he moved north to Khanty-Mansiysk. “I’ve been living, training, and studying there since 2020,” he says.

Though a gloss of the comedic and contrived covers all WWE pro wrestling, moves similar to this are seen in those rings. At a formal amateur event, however, the predominantly ground-wrestler spiced up freestyle with a Greco gig. American Coleman, raised by a determined single mother, who struggled to make headway and arrived from a very gritty background in 2011 when he went to the World juniors, had seen it as a ticket out of oblivion too.

Islamgereev has also shown what Russian wrestling – shunted out from the Olympics – brings to sport: a lot of raw talent and flair.

For Islamgereev, it was his only way to reach the finals. “Of course, this is a lesson for me that you should never give up. You always have to believe, first in God and then in yourself. By doing that, you prove to yourself that, by the will of God, you can win and pull it off. Even with just a few seconds remaining, even when you need four points, you can still come back and do it,” he ended.