Overview
- Zheenaliev, 30, entered Lake Issyk-Kul with a friend after a strong current pulled one of four teenage girls underwater, and the girls all reached shore.
- He did not resurface during the rescue, and divers recovered his body the next day at the alpine lake in eastern Kyrgyzstan.
- Local officials have attributed his death to drowning during a rescue mission.
- The former fighter last competed in 2019 and finished his professional MMA career with a 2–2 record in regional events in Russia.
- News outlets have described his actions as heroic and noted parallels to Geronimo Dos Santos, another ex-fighter who drowned after being swept by a current in Brazil last year.