Another fight weekend is in the books. The last few nights of MMA action were punctuated by the UFC’s Saturday main event giving us one of the most thrilling fights of 2021, two insane rounds finished by Jiri Prochazka knocking Dominick Reyes limp with a spinning back elbow.
I’ll have more of Prochazka’s violent brilliance, and his future as one of the light heavyweight division’s top contenders, this week. But for now, here are three fighters outside of the main event who boosted their stock Saturday:
Dread it. Run from it. The G I G A K I C K arrives all the same.
Georgian kickboxer Giga Chikadze was one of featherweight’s breakout stars of 2020, arriving on the big stage by stretching his UFC record to 5-0. However – and apologies to Omar Morales, a pretty good fighter – Chikadze had yet to put a real name on his record. In all-time scrapper Cub Swanson, a beloved veteran with plenty of heat left in the fists, Chikadze had his opportunity in Saturday’s co-main.
Now, Swanson is one of the toughest men the featherweight division has ever known. Over nearly 40 pro fights and 17 years as a professional, Swanson had only been knocked out once, in a career filled with dangerous opponents and memorable striking battles. That KO came against a prime, world-devouring Jose Aldo, and it was probably the most spectacular and most memorable KO of Aldo’s career: his Masvidalesque eight-second flying knee in 2009.
Short of being the peak form of the greatest featherweight to ever walk the Earth, you don’t knock out Cub Swanson. And while Chikadze is a very good technical kickboxer, the power in his hands hasn’t particularly stood out through his UFC run. Chikadze evaluated this dilemma, and came to a promising solution: how about I kick the guy in the liver and make his entire body shut down, instead?
We’ve heard stories of the Giga Kick, that lefty boot to the body that became Chikadze’s signature move on the kickboxing circuit, since he debuted in the UFC in 2019. We’ve seen flashes of its power: before knocking out Jamey Simmons with a head kick and a flurry of punches in November, Chikadze whacked him good with a sharp Giga Kick. But in 14 pro MMA fights, Chikadze had never finished an opponent with the move he lent his name to.
Now, we’ve seen the full power of the Giga Kick unleashed. And the only thing better than winning is winning in an exciting and signature way: Giga Chikadze has a finishing move like a pro wrestling. In many ways, MMA simply is pro wrestling, except the fights are real. And to borrow a pro wrestling term, I’m pushing Giga Chikadze to the moon right now.
He just knocked out one of the toughest, most durable men in one of the deepest divisions in the sport. Big-money fights await our pal Giga.
When you hear commentators refer to bantamweight Merab Dvalishvili, you might hear the term “weaponized pace.” That sounds really cool, and it’s a pretty accurate way to describe the way the 30-year-old Georgian fights, but it still almost seems inadequate to fully describe the Merab Experience. Quite simply, Merab Dvalishvili has a never-ending amount of energy that seems almost superhuman.
Merab is an improving striker with pop in his fists, but he’s not great on the feet. He has some submissions in his arsenal, but he’s not great at tapping guys out. He can put you on your back (a lot), but he’s not even particularly great at keeping you there. Merab Dvalishvili is great at two things though: hitting takedown after takedown after takedown, and never, ever, ever slowing down, not even for a second.
Cody Stamann thought he was ready for the Merab Experience on Saturday night. Stamann – a strong, technically sound fighter who may be lacking that one special quality to get him over the top – thought wrong. Merab was on him from the word “go,” throwing punches ceaselessly, attempting 20 takedowns a minute, and coming at Stamann like a rabid animal.
In basketball terms, Merab Dvalishvili is what we call a “stat-sheet stuffer.” He finished the fight outstriking Stamann 178-73 and he landed five takedowns. Almost all of his fights are like that. Many of those punches had no power behind them, little pitter-patter shots that he threw just because he could, and just because he seemingly needs to be doing something at all times or his heart might stop. He fights like if Colby Covington tripped and fell into a mountain of cocaine.
And guess what, it keeps working. After starting 0-2 in the UFC – both of those losses highly controversial, in different ways, and strong arguments can be made that Merab should have won both – “the Machine” has reeled off six unanimous decisions in a row, and appears to be a force incapable of being slowed. You’re going to have to kill this guy, or he’s going to be on your ass until you have nothing left.
And I absolutely love watching it.
Merab Dvalishvili fights like the Tasmanian Devil: energy seemingly bursting at the seams. Middleweight Sean Strickland, who also picked up a very important momentum win on Saturday night, also has a very distinct style in the cage, only seemingly the complete opposite.
You can set your watch to a Sean Strickland fight. He’s metronomic. Zero wasted movement, zero energy expended unnecessarily. He walks after you on the feet, maneuvering himself into position, only letting his hands go when he’s right where he wants to be. When he gets there, he fires ramrod-straight jabs and right hands directly at the center of your forehead. And when he finds his groove, he looks like one of 185’s biggest problems.
Strickland lost about two years of his career after being seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in 2018, returning with a pair of impressive wins in the fall. Since his return from injury, he’s looked like a completely new man. And Krzysztof Jotko, who entered Saturday on a three-fight win streak of his own, was not the man to stop Strickland’s roll.
Jotko has some striking pop of his own, but has reined in his more wild style a bit over the years to solid effect. But on Saturday, Jotko’s wider, winged hooks could do little to stop Strickland’s relentless advance. Strickland is weird to watch because he’s incredibly flat-footed, and just plods after his opponents. But that right cross kept landing over and over, and Strickland walked away with a strong unanimous decision.
Strickland’s punches come with zero wind-up and zero telegraph. He just gets where he wants to be, and then he touches you. And while Strickland is regarded as a fighter who’s not nearly as effective when he’s on the back foot, his defense is very strong, his technical boxing some of the sharpest in the UFC, and he can fight his way for hours without slowing down.
Just like he does in the cage, Strickland has, precisely and at a measured pace, maneuvered himself into the top 15 of the UFC middleweight rankings. We know one thing: it’s going to take a higher level of talent to figure out how to keep Sean Strickland from walking you down. Those talents are soon to be on the ledger for Strickland, and I can’t wait for it.
The Big Fight 