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It’s really not hard to understand why some fight fans are excited about Shara Magomedov.
First and foremost, his name ends in “Ov.” If you haven’t noticed, Dagestani fighters have been running the board for a while now, and bettors have picked up on the trend. Add in a unique look and undefeated record, and baby, you’ve got a bonafide hype train picking up steam. Three fights into his UFC career, Magomedov believers are justified so far, as he’s largely trounced a trio of reasonably solid opponents.
The problem is that Magomedov simultaneously looks vulnerable. He’s fought in the Octagon for nearly 45 minutes, and yet it’s difficult to have a confident read on his potential and overall ceiling at 185-pounds. He’s shown moments of greatness and plenty of strange holes in his game, which makes for an interesting dynamic.
Let’s start with the positive: pace. Middleweight is a division infamous for fatigued fighters. Now, the average cardio of the average Middleweight is not worse than the bigger men of Heavyweight or 205-pounds, but those lads tend to knock each other out more often. Middleweight seems to be the perfect mix of athletes too large to fight hard for 15 minutes yet not powerful enough to stop each other, which is why the division is known for putting on absolute slogs.
Magomedov is a clear-cut exception. He fights a brutally exhausting style — running around and blasting power kicks is the opposite of efficient — and keeps it up. Sure, he’s a bit tired in round three, but as Michal Oleksiejczuk found out the hard way, eating 70 hard kicks in the first two rounds doesn’t leave his opponents feeling fresh as a daisy either.
The other big positive on display in this fight was offensive variety. When Oleksiejczuk correctly tried to press his way into the pocket — and Oleksiejczuk is actually quite good at this game plan, which gives bonus points to the idea that Magomedov is legit — Magomedov met his advantages with cutting elbows and hard knees. The Polish boxer is a gamer, but he ended up sliced up and worn down from Magomedov’s attritional offense.
That’s really good tactics, and it felt like a strategy that could work against many talented Middleweight strikers.
Unfortunately, Magomedov has obvious holes in his footwork. He ended up on the fence a lot, and his answer every time was to circle off to his own left. Avoiding Oleksiejczuk’s power left hand is great, but had the Southpaw closed the door with his right hook at all, Magomedov would’ve walked right into it.
We just saw a champion lose his title because of poor cage position, and it’ll happen to “Bullet” at some point too if he doesn’t fix the issue.
Then, there’s the more complicated issue that Magomedov’s grappling is simply not good. Oleksiejczuk routinely gets submitted because his own grappling is mediocre, and he was still able to take down and threaten Magomedov. Put the Russian in the cage opposite an actually good wrestler/grappler, and he might not last long enough to enjoy his cardio advantage.
It’s a unique dynamic. Magomedov clearly has special attributes that separate him from the Middleweight pack. If honed correctly, he really could be a player in the title mix. At the same time, he still has flaws that could cost him fights against even unranked opposition. His hype train could sail to the moon or explode in his next match up.
If nothing else, his chaos is an injection of fun into the 185-pound division, which is always a positive.
For complete UFC Abu Dhabi: “Sandhagen vs. Nurmagomedov” results and play-by-play, click HERE!