After Boston Ceremony, Farrow Reports on Bombers’ Martial Arts Background

FARROW: "And we're going to close this hour with a look at the people behind this tragedy, the Tsarnaev brothers. Dzhokhar as we've said remains in confinement in federal prison, he has no contact with other prisoners and little contact with the outside world. Questions remain about his older brother Tamerlan and his motivations for the bombing. Before he died, Tamerlan paid a visit to their native Dagestan. Tamerlan, like many there in Dagestan, studied mixed martial arts. It's a robust martial arts culture there, and that's part of what drew him to the scene there. We're going to take a closer look at the collaboration with the data mining start-up, Vocativ."

REPORTER: "This is fight night in the Chechen capital of Grozny."
ISAEV [TRANSLATED]: "I think MMA is the sport of the peoples, of the Caucuses, and for the Chechens."
REPORTER: "In America kids play basketball, football, and baseball. In Chechnya and in Dagastan, where Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev spent part of their childhood, they wrestle and do martial arts. Fighting is a way of life. For few people here so is extremism. Beslan Isaev is one of the many fighters here trying to use his sport as a way out."
ISAEV [TRANSLATED]: "It's in our blood, fighting, battles, wrestling, all of it. It's in or genes."
REPORTER: "It was in Tamerlan Tsarnaev's blood as he trained to box. Named for the vicious conqueror in the 14th century, Tamerlan alledgedly descended into radical Islam after his Olympic dream ended. Was one outlet replaced by te other? We don't know. What we do know is that man people here MMA is like a religion."
KHASIEV [TRANSLATED]: "This building is the holiest of holies."
UNKNOWN: "Grozy tried to absorb this, the biggest bombardment since Yeltsen ordered his troops in."
REPORTER: "Over the last two decades, this region has been ravaged by two wars and a steady stream of terror attacks. In this place that gave rise to the infamous black widow suicide bombers, even the little girls learn to wrestle too."
KARAEV [TRANSLATED]: "The bad tempered times have stayed in our blood, and now we need to transform it into something."
REPORTER: "On MMA forums around the world, Vocative analysts find that the number of messages and postings about fighters from the Caucuses has increased exponentially over the last three years. In the past few years Islan and others from the region have flooded MMA leagues from the smaller circuits to the big octagon on American cable TV, the UFC. Notice Beslan's ear. That's what happens in this sport. You get hit a lot. The fighters wear it like a badge."
MIRZAEV [TRANSLATED]: "Here we are like the world of animals: The strongest survive."
REPORTER: "Three years ago Rasul Mirzaev was a rising fighter with a 5 and 0 record when he punched a 19-year-old outside a club in Moscow. The man died from his injuries. Mirzaev spent 15 months in prison for manslaughter."
MIRZAEV [TRANSLATED]: "I thought it was a dream. Sometimes I still wake up and look at the ceiling and wonder if I'm still asleep."
REPORTER: "Vocativ recently went with Mirzaev as he visited his grammar school in Dagastan. He is still seen as a hero here. He used wrestling and fighting to find a way out of a place now perceived by many as a breeding ground for terrorists."
MIRZAEV [TRANSLATED]: "The common opinion about us has become very negative -- that we are all extremists and bandits. No, we are like everybody else."
REPORTER: "Compared to war, these fighters, the ring is not all that frightening."
MAKHMUDOV [TRANSLATED]: "We have bombs going off and gunshots every day. It's hard to even compare what goes on in the gym to all that noise."
REPORTER: "Not all the fighters here are so impartial. Makhmudov believes the bombings in Boston were a conspiracy."
MAKHMUDOV [TRANSLATED]: "I feel sadness and pain for the people in Boston who suffered. But at the same time I feel sadness for the Tsarnaevs who were used as scapegoats. I don't think the act was carried out by the guys that are blamed for it."
NASTUDINOV [TRANSLATED]: "Every nation has its own crazies."
REPOTER: "Sadrudin Nasrudinov is Russia's female Olympic wrestling coach based in Dagestan's capital city, Makhachkala. He says the Tsarnaev brothers are not representative of Dagastan."
NASTUDINOV [TRANSLATED]: "It's hard to explain what the Tsarnaevs want, what their angle is. The guys that did this at the Boston marathon, this could happen at any sporting event, one where even I could be, somewhere in Dagastan. There are no guarantees."

FARROW: "All right. Thank you to our partners at Vocativ for that report. And that wraps things up for today's Ronan Farrow Daily. Thank you all for joining me."