The UFC just can’t stop pulling in new talent for their Croatia trip, this time signing French heavyweight Cyril Asker and Bosnian-born lightweight Damir Hadzovic.
The UFC’s recent heavyweight binge feels almost a bit unreal. This is a promotion that has struggled for years to bring in fresh talent to everything above middleweight and has largely restocked its fighters there with its Strikeforce acquisition. Beyond that, pickings have been slim. But now, whatever the reason, we’re seeing a flood of 206+ lb talent. The latest of these is French Heavyweight Cyril Asker. His signing was first reported by EFC Africa, where Asker was their Heavyweight champ. While it hasn’t been made official yet, he is expected to debut on the Croatia card, against a yet to be named opponent. Following him (and also on the Croatia card), will be Bosnian-born Danish lightweight Damir Hadzovic. His debut has already been made official by the UFC and he’ll be facing Mairbek Taisumov. So…
Who is Cyril Asker?
“Silverback” (sorry Seth) is a 30-year-old French fighter who has cut his teeth lately in South Africa. He trains out of Bushido Academie working under James Schiavo and Samy Schiavo, the latter a longtime vet of Cage Rage. It looks like a big camp with a lot of developing talent, but from which Asker will be the first to make the UFC jump. He also trains at Checkmat BJJ in Avignon. He’s the current EFCA heavyweight champ, having earned the belt in his last fight. He’ll be coming to the UFC with a 7-1 pro record and wins over UFC vet Ruan Potts and regional standouts Andrew van Zyl and Juha Saarinen. His only loss is to strong light heavyweight prospect Karl Moore. Asker started his combat sports career in boxing, before moving to MMA. He also has a purple belt in BJJ.
What you should expect:
Cyril Asker reminds me a bit of a heavyweight Chris Beal. In that, watching him, it’s obvious that he’s working from a boxing background, he’s somewhat light on his feet, his punches (when he throws them) are reasonably technical), and he supplements his boxing with a generally well rounded game. But, much like Beal, I wonder if the UFC result won’t be less than the some of its parts. First and foremost, Asker is neither an entirely comfortable aggressor, nor counter-puncher. He’s at his best as a striker, when his opponent gives him indefinite time at range to work with. When faced with an opponent who will throw hands at him, he usually has to resort to wrestling, since he can’t set himself to throw his hands. When he does get that time and space he throws a nice 1-2 and has some good power, but it’s just not as reliable a skill as it looks like it should be.
As far as wrestling, he’s got a decent grasp of the basics when it comes to a power double and wrestling top control fundamentals. Part of that may be that on the South Africa scene even a limited wrestling game makes him a dominant force. He does well to find advantageous grappling positions and to create striking offense from them, but he doesn’t look like a grappling wizard. Decently fundamental, but not excellent, and potentially undersized for the division.
To get us better acquainted, here’s his 2015 fight with Ricky Mishola over in the EFC.
Who is Damir Hadzovic?
The 29-year-old “Bosnian Bomber” is coming to the UFC straight out of Danish fight team Rumble Sports. It’s the home club of UFC talent Nicolas Dalby, Invicta fighter Pannie Kianzad, and the recently retired Mats Nilsson. Hadzovic is on his way to the UFC after a short stint in Cage Warriors, where he defetead top Scottish fighter Martin Delaney and UFC vet John Maguire. In his last bout he beat top regional vet Ivan Musardo. While his pre-2014 record isn’t nearly as notable, that recent run is a great sign of his potential to compete at a high level. He’ll be hitting the Octagon with a 10-2 record and a six fight win streak. His only losses come over UFC fighter Krzysztof Jotko and the recently released Andreas Stahl.
What you should expect:
Despite having no secondary combat sports background (or perhaps because of it) Hadzovic is mostly a pure kickboxer in MMA. Much like his UFC counterpart, Dalby, he keeps a wide base and uses good, clean footwork to stay at range. He doesn’t always work at Dalby’s pace however, tending to rely more on regular feints or big offensive blitzes, rather than a consistent output of strikes, to keep fighters at arms reach. He seems best suited for an aggressive attacking role, but either closes himself out of range when he gets aggressive, or just doesn’t let his hands go. Because he defaults to a high guard as well, he has some trouble with swarming strikers.
As he tends to get more comfortable and open up his striking, he shows much better technique. The longer the fight goes, the better Hadzovic seems to look. It’s clear that he has an exceptionally dangerous clinch game, with powerful knee strikes from a variety of angles. Overall, he has a lot of power in his hands and legs, it’s just about finding the right times and places to apply it. He has a solid GnP game from the top when he gets there, but isn’t a clean wrestler or grappler. His takedown defense is relatively strong, and he gets back to his feet quickly when he hits the mat.
What this means for his debut:
Hadzovic has something of a mountain in front of him with Mairbek Taisumov. While Hadzovic has all the building blocks of a good power striking game and a competitive UFC style, he hasn’t shown the technical depth of a striker like Taisumov to date. He also, frankly, hasn’t faced a striker nearly as capable as Taisumov yet. Maguire and Delaney are both grapplers first and foremost and Musardo is more capable enough standing, but not any kind of skilled technician. That means that Taisumov could represent a huge jump up. And considering that Hadzovic is unlikely to look to change the competitive arena from striking to wrestling, he’s going to have to rely on a punchers chance. He’s got the power to do it, but it’d be the first KO loss of Taisumov’s career if he made it happen.
To get us better acquainted, here’s Hadzovic’s last bout against Ivan Musardo back in May of 2015: