Born on 25 May 1990 in Makhachkala, capital of the Republic of Dagestan, Abdurakhman Bilarov came from a wrestling background before turning to Brazilian jiu-jitsu. His development accelerated when he began training under Rafael Haubert, an affiliate of Team Nogueira, who promoted him to black belt in 2015 following three consecutive gold medals at the UAEJJF Abu Dhabi World Professional Championship. Even before that promotion, competing as a brown belt, Bilarov made international headlines by beating world-class black belts Claudio Calasans and Jackson Sousa at the Berkut Challenge events in Russia, winning the absolute final over Calasans. His subsequent record includes heel-hook wins over Jackson Sousa and Erberth Santos at ACBJJ 9 (2017), the ADCC European Trials title (2017), and the UWW No-Gi World Grappling Championship (2018). He is frequently referenced as the first genuinely high-level BJJ black belt produced by Russia.