Jeffrey Epstein’s personal bodyguard was once a UFC fighter. Igor Zinoviev, a Russian-born sambo and judo practitioner, spent years at Epstein’s side before the financier’s world collapsed under criminal charges. His story is central to early MMA history and is one of the most infamous scandals of all time modern memory.
How UFC fighter Igor Zinoviev ended up guarding Jeffrey Epstein
Zinoviev grew up in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he trained in judo, sambo and combat sambo before serving in the Russian army for two years. He emigrated to the United States in 1991 and arrived in New York with almost no English. He found work in a Russian bathhouse and came into contact with matchmaker John Perretti, who was building a martial arts organization called Extreme Fighting. Zinoviev became the promotion’s middleweight champion at its first event in 1995, defeating Brazilian jiu-jitsu standout Mario Sperry.
He knocked out Enson Inoue in Vale Tudo Japan in 1996, compiling a professional record of 4-1-2. His last fight came at UFC 16 in March 1998, where Frank Shamrock knocked him unconscious in 22 seconds, breaking his collarbone and ending his career.
By the early 2000s, Zinoviev had moved into private security. He worked as Epstein’s bodyguard, driver and personal trainer for about five years. Epstein files shows him on 19 documented flights between 2001 and 2010, along with Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and other associates. He was listed in Epstein’s black book with two telephone numbers. Multiple victims identified him as a domestic worker who witnessed the flow of young women to and from the properties.
In a 2019 interview with New York Magazine After Epstein’s death, Zinoviev said he believed Epstein did not act alone.
“Someone helped him with that. That goes a little too deep.”
In an earlier exchange from 2015, he was more direct about Epstein’s reach.
“He has so much money that he can pay it off. That guy could try to sue me and manipulate the situation with his money. That’s the American way.”
On the MMA History Podcast in 2024, Zinoviev elaborated on the Epstein questions.
“I worked for him for a number of years. I never saw any teenage girls. He had two or three girlfriends, like 24, 25. If I had seen something like that I probably would have done something about it myself.”
Perhaps the most important claim associated with Zinoviev concerns the CIA. Attorney Brad Edwards, who represented Epstein’s victims, recounted a conversation with Zinoviev, he warned that he must withdraw, proverb“You don’t know who you’re messing with.” When Edwards insisted, Zinoviev whispered three letters: “CIA.” Palmeri also reported that Zinoviev claimed that during Epstein’s 2008 sentence, he was sent to CIA headquarters in Langley to retrieve material intended for Epstein from behind bars.
Zinoviev was never charged with any crime in connection with the case. His name remains one of the stranger footnotes in both MMA history and the Epstein saga.
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