Hellowhosthat

UFC signing report - Lucia Szabova Szabova hasn't rushed to the UFC and has taken her time building her record and experience to get here. With Oktagon, she became not only the Bantamweight but also simultaneously the Flyweight champion for Oktagon which is probably the European promotion with the best female divisions. She began as a kickboxer but her grappling has become an increasingly important part of her game, so much so that she holds a sub win via Americana over UFC vet Kalindra Faria. I probably would have preferred her to enter at Flyweight seeing as she can make the weight and might be a bit small at Bantamweight, but I can kind of see the logic given that Bantam is the easier division to progress in quickly. She's making her debut against Tainara Lisboa, who has no takedown defence so assuming she's sensible and takes the path of least resistance I expect a fairly easy win and a fairly impressive debut. I think she'll hit the rankings within a year, but once she gets towards the top 10, she might have to have a serious think about which division is the best long term bet for her. Either way, one of the best female signings of the year and maybe the best.

UFC signing report - Joe Kropschot I'll give Kropschot a slight boost for outlasting Kunneman on contender series. I still don't really think he'll do much in the UFC but he showcased the hard nosed grappling graft that's got him to this stage there and he's always going to come to at least try and outwork his opponents. He's got one of the lesser fighters in the division for his debut in Nick Klein so he might well even get off to a winning start but I don't think he has the technical level to get past fighters from the mid point of the division upwards where hard work ceases to be enough.

I wonder what traditional martial arts value continuing to coach and associate with someone who's been found civilly liable for rape is?

Get some deodorant Harry.

I don't believe Ariel is familiar with Sir Donald Bradman and Australia is going to murder him for it.

Omargadziev is a decent step up for Podrugin. Looking forward to seeing how he handles that.

Omarov should have been in the cage, not in the crowd. 😡

Call Garry what you want, but this guy is more anyone, anywhere than most of your favourite fighters.

The only terrifying thing about this is the walk back to the car park.

There'll be a narrative that Evloev was overrated now but we seriously need to think about how insane it is for Volk to be doing that to a 20-0 challenger when he's 38 years old.

UFC signing report card - Asaf Chopurov The UFC have made some big signings this year, but it's not unreasonable to suggest that over the long term Asaf Chopurov might be the best. Chopurov has been seen as a slam dunk prospect for some time, even as an amateur where he amassed a frankly ridiculous 35-1 record. He took to the pros like a duck to water and beat Petr Yan's main training partner at the time Denis Lavrentyev in only his 4th pro fight (Chopurov seems to have replaced Denis as Yan's main partner now). Since then he's been beating good level regional competition in UAE Warriors including Bellator vet Nikita Mikhailov, former Ares champ Demarte Pena and long time ONE vet Reece McClaren. Finishing his last five fights and being the first guy to finish McClaren in almost a decade. He's debuting against Colby Thicknesse and in truth he's probably already beaten stiffer competition than Colby so I expect him to make a good first impression on UFC fans. After his debut it depends how fast the UFC want to go with him as he's only 24, but I think you could throw him in there with ranked opposition now and he wouldn't look out of place at all.

Silver hype train card - Rashid Vagabov Most of us will remember Rashid getting his shot on DWCS where he didn't get a contract for daring to not win impressively enough when he was the betting favourite (I still haven't worked out why Dana takes odds into account when making his selections). The issue seemed to be that he wasn't being entertaining enough because he was clearly good enough. He's just fixed that by finishing Marciano Ferreira who is a better fighter than his contender series opponent by Scottish Twister, so hopefully he's put that to bed and gets his opportunity. It's absolutely insane that there's only one Russian flyweight in the UFC given how deep the division is over there, so hopefully Vagabov can join his teammate Tagir Ulanbekov and become the 2nd.

I think this bad boy has to be the regional fight of the week this week.

Apart from all the scams that were on coffeezilla.

I can get a combined 23-0 out of Daniyar Tochybek and Shermurat Kalimov. 👀

Temirkhanov continuing on his mission to destroy every Brazilian welterweight in existence until the UFC notices him.

Gold Hype Train Card - Giorgi Poladishvili I think this guy might be something special. Going into the RKENA Vs PFL card, David Mgoyan was the Georgian Featherweight I was excited to see, but coming out of it having being impressed and watched his back catalogue, I'm now higher on Poladishvili. He comes from a bare knuckle background which is hardly what I'd consider the best base for MMA, but he's made it work for him and his ability to land the punches without gloves seems to have translated well to the small gloves striking game of MMA. His striking isn't just limited to boxing though. He's got a really nice quick high kick he hides behind combos and a spectacularly accurate spinning back kick he cracks guys right in the mush with. He's also got good all round grappling. His takedown defence is really good with excellent balance when guys try to jack him on a single leg and a good sprawl when they try and double him. On top he's excellent too. He's got really tight top control, keeps chest to chest on the upper body while he's passing, maintaining pressure at all times while moving towards mount or back. I love the way he floats from back to mount while keeping the body triangle and smashing elbows in when he wants to go for the ground and pound and he's got some great subs in his arsenal too, including a reverse triangle in one fight which was sexy as fuck. His win at the weekend took him to 5-0 with 5 finishes. With his stupidly exciting style he's someone the UFC should be all over. If PFL have a working relationship with RKENA from this card then it's probably worth them trying their look too, but this guy feels like a UFC fighter to me.

Bronze Hype Train card - Giuseppe Mastrogiacomo I think I've spelt that right. Anyway Giuseppe is a really fucking fun fighter. He's all action, very aggressive and I imagine the UFC would like him. His win over Alexis Tsarmantidis (thank fuck for copy and paste) kind of cemented how much he's improved since the only loss of his career where he lost his back and got RNC'd by Bellator vet Aiden Lee and to be fair that's Lee's bread and butter. It might not be the best time to compare someone with Joaquin Buckley, but the way Giuseppe covers distance quickly with hooks does remind me of him. Though he does mix in more leg kicks than Buckley does, has a bit of nice spinning shit in his arsenal and is less likely to clinch and wrestle offensively generally. Against Tsarmantidis that was all on display as he was faster than the stocky powerhouse chucking bombs at him and after having to show he had a good chin by eating one of said bombs without issue, his speed made Tsarmantidis increasingly desperate until he absolutely nailed him with a knee to the body to take him out. He's now on a 4 fight win streak against solid competition with a combined 30-7 record and is probably next in line for a title shot against Nik Bagley. If he can get through Bagley then the UFC should certainly be calling and if that fight doesn't get made, then I think he's got to be a name on the consideration for the 2027 contender series.

UFC signing report - Cristian Perez Another quick turnaround from this season of DWCS and for me one of the under the radar better signings of the season. Puas has really developed on the feet recently, to the point where he delivers his punches with precision and power and in combination which has supplemented his already really good offensive grappling. The question mark with him is generally around defensive wrestling, but he's worked hard at that over the years. I think Perez should have a long career in the UFC, I don't see him as a future champion, but a future in the rankings is absolutely not out of the question

#UFC signing report - Louis Jourdain Believe it or not there are still some signings left to debut from the 2025 edition of Contender Series, although with Jourdain we're finally down to the final five. I do think Jourdain's easy win over Magno Dias on the show last year flattered him a little bit as I didn't have him that high on my list of prospects going into that season and think a lot of people had him near the top of their lists coming out. I don't think he's as good as his brother, but I think that's mainly just an athletic difference. Both Charles and Louis are skilled, but Charles is also a naturally explosive athlete, which I don't think Louis is. He does have pretty crisp boxing and solid enough BJJ though, which could well be enough to win a few fights in the UFC, but at the same time bantamweight is probably the most talent stacked division in the promotion so with the wrong matchups you can easily end up on a losing streak and get cut.