A new Russian heavyweight is on the way to the UFC and is expected to make his debut on the UFC 200 PPV card. He’s joined this week by another last minute replacement for the UFC Boston card.
That UFC Boston undercard just can’t seem to stay together. Augusto “Tanquinho” Mendes was brought in on short notice to replace featherweight Jim Hettes, after Hettes suffered a bad knee injury. Now, unfortunately, it looks like Mendes is out with an injury as well, and Charles Rosa, Hettes’ original opponent will be getting his second re-booking in less than a week. Kyle Bochniak will step in for Mendes against Rosa on just a few days notice, as confirmed by Dave Sholler, the news of his signing was first made public via his gym’s Facebook page. And as a follow up reports are out that, despite pulling out of the short notice bout, Mendes will remain on the UFC roster.
To go along with Bochniak’s signing Bloody Elbow has also learned, through sources close to the fighter, that Russian heavyweight Dmitry Smolyakov has also been signed to the UFC. He will apparently be making his debut at UFC 200, although his signing, debut date, and opponent have all yet to be made official. So…
Who is Kyle Bochniak?
“Killer B” (He may have to change that for BE’s sake), is a 28-year old, 6-0 featherweight fighting out of Broadway Jiu Jitsu and Fitness in Boston, Massachusetts. It’s a Carlson Gracie affiliate, from which he is the only notable MMA talent to date. He’s also a trainer for Peter Welch’s boxing gym. Bochniak’s pro-record has been built exclusively through CES MMA, and while his level of competition hasn’t been notably strong, it’s not notably weak either. A lot of .500 fighters, about what you’d expect for a guy just two years and six fights into his pro career. He last fought on January 8th, where he won by submission in the first round, so this will be a very very short turnaround.
What you should expect:
Like a lot of good athletes that came to MMA with little to no combat sports background, Bochniak’s biggest assets are more in the meta-game of MMA than they are in wrestling, grappling, or striking technique. Bochniak is a stocky, powerful fighter, who uses constant aggression, a high pace, and a willingness to take the fight everywhere to overwhelm opponents. When standing at range, he tends to push out his punches a bit and leans out over his feet. Those are dangerous habits, but he does a good job mixing kicks into his combinations and has enough power to be respectable even when he’s not pretty.
He’s very good at throwing and landing strikes in the clinch, and has enough power and scrambling ability to be hard to take down, even when he’s caught off guard. His wrestling and grappling are more about scrambling than anything, and he especially has trouble keeping positions on the ground. Over time I expect a lot of the flaws in his game should get ironed out, but right now he fights like a good athletic talent, with lots of aggression, and not a lot of experience.
What this means for his debut:
This is probably an even better fight for Rosa than Tanquinho would have been, as Bochniak will also be willing to engage Rosa on the ground, but won’t be coming in with a deep technical skill advantage. After that, neither man is exactly a top notch striker or wrestler, and Rosa is the much more experienced of the two. I expect Bochniak to look pretty competitive in a fun scrap, but it feels like there’s a good chance he gives up the submission loss.
To get us better acquainted, here’s his 2014 fight with Ruslan Khubejashvili:
Who is Dmitry Smolyakov?
The 31-year old Russian Master of Sport in freestyle & Greco-Roman wrestling has already been a part of the Eastern European MMA scene beyond his pro-MMA career in more of a coaching role. He’s been a training partner for fighters like Mamed Khalidov, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and others on the Polish MMA scene out of Berkut Arrachion Olsztyn. He’ll be making his way to the UFC with an undefeated 7-0 record, with all of his wins coming by way of 1st round TKO or submission. His record is about what you’d expect out of a regional heavyweight, which is to say that he’s fought little in the way of serious competition. His best win on paper is probably from his first pro fight, with the rest being completely green or loss heavy fighters.
What you should expect:
He moves like a Greco-Roman guy, which is to say, he’s a bit heavy on his feet (think Dan Henderson shuffle). He’s actually got pretty quick hands when he throws them and it looks like he’s spent some serious time working on his boxing, but he’s not a dynamic force at 250 odd pounds. He’s got a lot of power in his punches and uses them well, with good timing and a reasonable jab. When he hurts opponents, he’s great at opening up with fast flurries of short varied strikes; he’s got great finishing instincts. Smolyakov also has a rock solid upper body takedown game, from his Greco background, and looks like he stuffs a shot well, although that’s tough to tell against his competition.
His grappling is probably the most notably lacking piece of his game. He tends to go for low control, high power subs from top position, something that has a pretty low success rate in the UFC. Still, grappling is probably the least important aspect of the heavyweight MMA game. Depending on how well Smolyakov can tighten up his striking defense, I expect he’ll do pretty well against UFC competition.
To get a better look at the new fighter, here’s an unrecorded pro bout against Lukasz Bartowski: