Author: Anton Tabuena

There was a lot going on, even on the very short moments these two deadly strikers had on the ground. Anton Tabuena breaks it all down.

Giga Chikadze headlined his first UFC event this past weekend, and that’s where the Georgian kickboxer notched the biggest win of his MMA career. He scored an impressive third round finish against Edson Barboza, which not only improved his record to 7-0 in the UFC, it also moved him higher in the featherweight top 10 rankings.

Most viewers will naturally remember the TKO and the technical stand up affair between two of MMA’s most dangerous kickers, but I’d like to highlight a different sequence from the fight: Chikadze’s surprising submission chain.

Chikadze declared himself as the “best striker in this sport” after the win, but he also showed a glimpse of his rarely seen submission game right before the finish.

Here’s a breakdown of Chikadze’s head-and-arm chokes, which were his first ever submission attempts in the UFC. We go over what he did, what went right, and what ultimately prevented the finish:

A minute into the third round, Chikadze hurts Barboza with a right hand. As Barboza wobbles and struggles with his footing, Chikadze pounces with a short flurry that eventually drops him.

Giga follows him to the mat to try and finish, but Barboza grabs a leg. He temporarily stops some of that ground-and-pound, but the still badly hurt Brazilian couldn’t do much and threaten with any legit sweep or submission. Chikadze just turns his leg out and kicks it free. [GIF here]

As Chikadze fires off more ground strikes, Barboza turns as he tries to get back to his feet. The moment he ends up on his knees though, Chikadze attacks the front headlock, passes his left arm through and locks up a bicep grip that sets up an anaconda choke. [GIF here]

There are various options from here in order to go to the typical anaconda choke finishing position. One common move is to tuck the head to the side and roll all the way through to the right. Another, is what Chikadze does here. He instead just beats Barboza’s (right) posting arm and drops to his left side, and they end up in the same position. [GIF here]

Chikadze crunches his head and walks towards him as he squeezes. As head-and-arm chokes go, one carotid artery is blocked by Chikadze’s arm, while the other is blocked by Barboza’s own shoulder. Chikadze’s chest crunching Barboza’s head inwards also adds a significant amount of pressure on both. Barboza does a good job of battling that arm and thigh to lift his elbow and relieve some of that pressure from his shoulder, but the choke still looks pretty tight here as Chikadze walks forward and curls Barboza’s body.

Barboza is in real danger at this point. [GIF here]

One option to finish, is to hook Barboza’s leg and prevent him from moving away. Chikadze instead just continues to walk and crunch forward to follow him. That’s still effective in most circumstances, but this is MMA and the fence played a factor. Barboza posts a bit on Chikadze’s leg to relieve some pressure and slow some of his forward motion, and then smartly uses the fence to get away from the choke completely. Savvy veteran skills right there! [GIF here]

Although known for pure kickboxing, it’s interesting that Chikadze immediately transitioned to a Darce the very moment he lost the anaconda. He switches his grip, gets on his knees, passes the arm through, and locks his bicep grip. The Darce threat is already there. [GIF here]

For those who get confused, the difference between the two head-and-arm chokes are illustrated here. Body positions can vary depending on how the person likes to finish, but as the name obviously suggests, you’ll need the head and one arm trapped for both chokes. A darce is where your grip is by the neck, while an anaconda is when the grip is by the arm.

Going back to the action, and the fence once again is hurting Chikadze’s chances to finish! As Barboza is on his side, I think the best option is for Chikadze to go perpendicular to his body. That would not only put him in a better position to complete the darce — you can finish there, or move to mount for an even nastier choke — more importantly, it also makes it easier to drive that shoulder and keep Barboza in place. But again, the fence is in the way of all of that. [GIF here]

As a result of not having that particularly important angle, Chikadze struggles to control position. He doesn’t have enough pressure from his shoulder, and Barboza is able to turn, get back to his knees and ultimately defend the Darce. Chikadze, of course, still had several other options and transitions from here, but because of that one detail — and the fence — he’s basically right back to that front headlock position from the very start of this breakdown. [GIF here]

Chikadze then basically said “f—k this!” and just let him up so he can punch him. Keep in mind, this was all just seconds since he dropped and badly hurt Barboza. While he had nice transitions chaining sub attempts, it was smart to go back to his bread and butter, and not make Barboza completely recover.

As soon as Barboza gets up: right hand, left hook, right hand. Barboza drops to the canvas again, and Chikadze got his TKO victory. [GIF here]

Chikadze put on an impressive striking performance for over 11 minutes, but I actually thoroughly enjoyed those final 43 seconds as it gave us another glimpse into his grappling and go-to submissions. Credit to Barboza as well, as he was able to still defend properly despite likely being concussed and running on autopilot.

We already know what Chikadze brings on the feet, but prior to this, he was credited with exactly zero submission attempts in six UFC fights and one Contender Series bout. Even in that short exchange, and despite not getting the finish, it was further evidence of him working on rounding out his game and being confident enough in try them in such a high stakes fight.

Adults attending UFC 267 must show proof of vaccination and “green status” on their health app.

While several key figures in MMA are somehow regularly involved in all these hot topics and debates concerning COVID-19 vaccinations, mandates and even its science, more places and venues continue to tighten up their health restrictions and requirements.

New York and other states are starting to impose vaccination mandates for indoor sports events, and the same is true for Abu Dhabi, which the UFC will return to this October. UFC 267, which will be the first UFC numbered event that isn’t a pay-per-view since 2011, will reportedly require attendees to show vaccination status via Abu Dhabi’s Al Hosn app.

Majority of the UAE’s population are already vaccinated — 75% fully vaccinated, 87% at least one dose, as of this writing — so UFC ticket sales shouldn’t be affected as much.

This rule for the UFC’s event in Yas Island also isn’t surprising, as Abu Dhabi now implements a similar mandate for everyone that wants to access public places such as malls, restaurants, gyms, resorts, schools, and others. The local government requires people to have “green status” in the Al Hosn app. Here’s what that means, according to Time Out Abu Dhabi.

Green status appears on the app [for vaccinated people] after a negative PCR test result and remains for 30 days.

Entry is also being granted for those exempted from vaccination who have green status – a negative PCR for unvaccinated individuals is valid on Al Hosn for seven days.

Abu Dhabi also goes a step further and requires booster shots to keep that “green status” and subsequent access to public places.

Authorities went on to say that a booster jab must be taken six months after receiving the second dose of the vaccine in order to maintain vaccinated status.

A grace period of 30 days is given to all those who have taken their second dose more than six months ago before their status turns grey

Dana White, in a slight turn from years of authoritarian policies towards their athletes, said he won’t “force” vaccines on any UFC employees and fighters. While some places still have more lenient rules for performers/competitors compared to the general public attending, other governing bodies could basically start to make those decisions for the UFC, as the promotion continues to travel to more and more places that implement stricter mandates.

UFC 267 will be topped by two title bouts, Jan Blachowicz vs Glover Teixeira and Aljamain Sterling vs Petr Yan 2. The much hyped prospect Khamzat Chimaev is also set to return after his particularly long and tough battle with COVID-19 on that card against Li Jingliang.

Is this the new face of combat sports?

It wasn’t the prettiest contest, but Jake Paul notched the biggest win of his young boxing career this past weekend, when he won a split decision over former UFC champion Tyron Woodley. Ever the self-promoter, Paul has since proclaimed himself as the new face of boxing.

“I think I’m one of the faces of boxing, just because I’m doing it differently,” Paul said on the post-fight press conference. “There’s room for everyone to eat though. I don’t want to take everything. This is a sport where there’s hundreds of amazing fighters, and all I want to do is bring more eyeballs from a different audience.

“Everyone here saw the crowd tonight. This wasn’t your typical boxing audience. This was kids that were rowdy, lit, holding up signs saying subscribe to my YouTube channel. This is a completely different audience, and that’s what I want to bring to boxing. I’ma bring that over, they’ll be fans of boxing, and love all the other fighters. But I’m certainly one of the top three biggest draws, for sure. Top three, top five, I don’t know, let’s look at the numbers.”

Paul continued that sentiment soon after, as the YouTuber changed his social media bio to “the face of the fight game” and followed up with a tweet.

Paul and Woodley sold out the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse arena in Cleveland, Ohio on Sunday, and by all accounts from those in attendance, it was a much younger crowd than your typical combat sports event. Whether or not you agree with the “face of the fight game” label, it is true that Paul indeed is a big draw that brings in a different kind of audience.

Paul is now 4-0 as a professional, but he also did claim to be retired though. While many — even his own team — expect him to return to the ring, it will be interesting to see where the polarizing figure goes from here.

Watch video from the main event between Jake Paul and former UFC champion Tyron Woodley.

Former long time UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley represented the biggest test of Jake Paul’s young boxing career. The YouTuber turned boxer came in 3-0, and had a pretty big jump going from an NBA player Nate Robinson and a wrestler in Ben Askren.

It ended up as a pretty uneventful and terrible contest. Paul didn’t look good and technical by any sense of the word, but Woodley was as tentative and gunshy as ever. Woodley’s best round was the fourth, where he hurt and wobbled Paul a little, but he didn’t punch or do enough throughout the contest.

It was a split decision, with the hometown favorite winning with the scores of 77-75 Paul, 77-75 Woodley, 78-74 Paul.

Watch highlights from the boxing match below, along with a snippet from our play-by-play:

Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley Round 8

LAST ROUND

They touch gloves to open the round.

Woodley firing. Lands a jab. Misses the big shot. They trade missed haymakers. Paul misses a big right. Paul clinches to smother a Woodley charge. Paul lands a jab. Paul’s tired, breathing heavy. More clinching. Woodley lands a left. Ariel Helwani, “Woodley’s legacy may be on the line here.”

Woodley lands a right. Paul clinches. Woodley lands. And it’s over. Round for Woodley, fight for Paul.

Jake Paul def. Tyron Woodley via split decision ( 77-75, 75-77, 78-74)

Watch a couple of knockouts from the undercard.

Two knockouts happened on the Jake Paul vs Tyron Woodley undercard.

While Tommy Fury didn’t really put on an impressive performance as he outpointed the much smaller MMA fighter in Anthony Taylor, Montana Love and Daniel Dubois managed to score good knockouts.

Love got a seventh round corner stoppage after dropping Ivan Baranchyk. Dubois, on the other hand, made his US debut, and got a first round KO over Joe Cusumano. Watch the videos and the hard shots they connected with on the clips below, along with a snippet from our play-by-play.

• Montana Love RTD-7 Ivan Baranchyk (3:00)

• Daniel Dubois TKO-1 Joe Cusumano (2:10)

Daniel Dubois vs. Joe Cusumano Round One

They’re throwing heavy leather early. Cusumano lands a sharp right hand. Dubois backing Cusumano into the corner. Hurts him with a left hook! He’s down. He stands up on the 9 count and they restart. Dubois attacks him right away. Backs Cusumano into the corner. Throwing combinations. And Cusumano is down for the second time in the round! He stands at 9. Ref lets it continue! Dubois drops him again! It’s over!

Watch the Jake Paul vs Tyron Woodley live stream here.

The Jake Paul vs Tyron Woodley PPV portion has started, but there’s still some decent time before the highly anticipated main event starts. If you’re still looking for a live stream, we have you covered.

You can stream and watch the event right here:

If for some reason that embed doesn’t work (Google AMP might strip it), you can just head over to this link on Fite TV. As another option, you can also stream it on Showtime.

That is $59.99 in the US, but far cheaper in other countries. For those in the UK, you can also stream it for £16.95 at BT Sport Box Office.

Paul and Woodley are expected to walk out to the ring at around 11:30 pm ET, and here’s the fight card.

Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley – 8 rounds, cruiserweights

Amanda Serrano vs. Yamileth Mercado – 10×2 minute rounds – Featherweights

Daniel Dubois vs. Joe Cusumano – 10 rounds, heavyweights

Ivan Baranchyk vs. Montana Love – 10 rounds, junior welterweights

Tommy Fury vs. Anthony Taylor – 4 rounds, 180 lbs catchweight