📝 The Crown Prince Of Kyrgyz MMA

The UFC is on a short hiatus as the company transitions to Paramount+. That leaves us with plenty of free time to explore compelling characters from far off lands and fight promotions. Today we’re taking a look at one of the most devastating fighters outside of the UFC.

Now let’s get into it.

Razhabali Shaydullaev is Rizin’s 25 year old undefeated featherweight champion. He comes from a remote village between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The region is known for ancient forms of combat. Alysh (belt wrestling) is Kyrgyzstan’s national sport and another form of Kyrgyzstan belted wrestling (Kyrgyz Kurosh) is still practiced today for the World Nomad Games. Like Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, and other countries in the area, Kyrgyzstan has their own horse based combat sport. They call it Kok-boru.

Shaydullaev grew up riding horses. He would also lift stones, do push-ups, and practice judo in his free time. After high school he started started wrestling and grappling training.

Shaydullaev sounds like featherweight’s Shavkat Rakhmomnov. Unfortunately for his opponents, he fights like Shavkat too. Violently.

You can’t talk about Shaydullaev without starting at his right hand. He’s got a warhead hidden in his glove.

Shaydullaev’s right hand is more than a power punch. It turns into many of his takedowns even after it lands.

This was so cool. I’ve never seen someone turn a right hand into a body lock into a takedown, and then keep that right under hook on the floor to open up additional ground and pound.

One strike becomes one control becomes one brutal finish.

Throwing a rear overhand to set up a takedown is a fundamental MMA grappling technique. It works well because the punch and the level change for the takedown look similar. You can hurt your opponent and take them down with one movement. At the very least that dilemma will confuse them.

Merab' Dvalishvili’s rear overhand carried him in his fight against Umar Nurmagomedov. You can read about that here.

Shaydullaev’s ballistic right hand that we touched on above is the perfect way for him to get in on his opponent’s hips.

Just look at how often he goes to the well with his right hand.

Shaydullaev isn’t only right hands though. He has dynamic kicks from his right side. And kicking often gets opponents to shoot on their own, giving Shaydullaev exactly what he wanted in the first place!

This is a relatively rarer anaconda setup but it’s my preferred entry. By bringing your head over your opponent’s torso and driving off of one leg, you can put someone down to a hip without rolling under them. It’s a much safer setup.

Let’s end where most of Shaydullaev’s fights do. On the floor.

Remember how Shaydullaev has nuclear power? That’s just as true on the ground as it is on the feet. When he starts hitting people they immediately move and Shaydullaev latches onto submissions.

This is just textbook MMA grappling. Punch while advancing position so your opponent extends a limb to move. Then you take that limb home.

Shaydullaev isn’t just a bomber on the ground. He uses clever gripping to stay glued to opponents and climb to finishes.

Pinning wrists from mount is a fundamental piece of modern no gi grappling. I’m excited to see it coming into MMA and I think it’s a major technical development to watch for this year.

Click here to see how Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan used wrist pinning for signature wins this year.

What stands out the most from Shaydullaev’s ground and pound onslaught is his use of cross faces and claw grips.

Cross facing and grabbing the far arm is basic wrestling. I’m talking like first week stuff. But this grip isn’t prioritized in BJJ gyms as people focus on attacking the neck. If you want to make your opponents and training partners miserable, play with this grip.

The claw grip, aka claw ride, is another fundamental grip in wrestling that works really well to setup arm triangles and ground and pound. A claw grip has you reach under an opponent’s armpit to grab the far side of the neck.

You can see Shaydullaev using a claw below in both sequences below. Pay attention to his left.

And here is the beginning of the end from his recent fight this past weekend. See how he uses the claw to climb to the back and being unloading?

Reviewing Shaydullaev’s career reminded me of why I love MMA.

This 25 year old kid is the hottest fighter coming out of Kyrgyzstan. A place most fans can’t spell, let alone place on the map. Still, the country has produced highly regarded action prospects Mytykbek Orolbai and Uran Satybaldiyev. These 3 men combine for a 41-3 record and a 95% finishing rate.

It’s fascinating to see new cultural groups rise up to the main stage of MMA, fighting their way from poverty and carrying their people’s pride with them to say they deserve adoration from the combat sports world. What’s better, Shaydullaev is doing it in RIZIN and they’re excited to tell his story.

They produced this awesome highlight reel and a beautiful documentary about his background. And they’re doing it without the UFC’s insane budget!

I hope Shaydullaev gets the recognition he deserves. And I’m happy his promotion is invested in his story.

When people tell me they are new to MMA and don’t know where to start I point them to DREAM.

The Japanese MMA promotion operated for less than 5 years. In that time they added to the legendary careers of Eddie Alvarez, Joachim Hansen, Shinya Aoki, and more. They even made Gegard Mousasi a household name in the MMA world.

Today I want to talk about the weird guard work that won Mousasi DREAM’s middleweight title. That means triangles, up kicks, and one weird defensive half guard.