The Kazakhs Are Here

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One of the scariest fighters today returns to competition at UFC 310. Shavkat Rakhmonov is fighting for the interim welterweight title. Today we’re going to take a closer look at how he carved his perfect record.

At the end of the 20th century the world was stepping out of the freezing constraints of a conflict that never really got going. The Cold War was ending. The capitalist west was labeled victorious while their global rivals to the east, the Soviet Union, was losing, and shedding territories.

In 1991, the largest landlocked country in the world declared their independence from the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan became the last country split and declare sovereignty. Within two weeks the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

With limited options for economic activity, Kazakhstan turned to petroleum, mining, and exporting Uranium. To build the next generation up from within, Kazakh leaders went to work investing in infrastructure to give children a place to go, stay safe, and better themselves. This included sport centers. Them, in 2004, the Kazakh government established the ZhekpeZhek Federation to re-introduce the once-popular national martial art, zhekpezhek, to a new generation.

Ten years after The Kazakh ZhekpeZhek Federation started, an entrepreneur named Alidar Utemuratov started an investment company to take advantage of the area’s digitalization efforts. The group, DAR, spun out numerous companies and projects including NAIZA Fighting Championship, Kazakhstan’s premier fighting organization, as well as a gym and pro team both named DAR.

DAR Team has since founded 11 clubs in different regions of the country. DAR plans to open 14 more centers so vulnerable children can participate in the sport. While the centers are designed around combat sports, they also employ other teachers to teach children logic, critical thinking, languages, reading, etc..

This fight for independence and investment in martial arts has culminated in this weekend. The most imposing Kazakh MMA fighter will descend from deep in the mountains to the UFC.

Professional fighter, hobbyist hunter. A man that carries the skins of the animals he’s killed for sport into cages he’s been contracted to fight other living killers.

He’s undefeated. He has an 18-0 record almost perfectly balanced with 10 submissions and 8 knockouts. His nickname comes from the root word of his country, “Nomad”. He’s Shavkat Rakhmonov and he returns to the UFC this Saturday to take on Ian Garry.

When you look at someone with such a near perfect record, it can be disingenuous to single any one thing out as the reason they have enjoyed such success. You don’t want to go looking for a tree and intentionally ignore a forest. There is one specific area of his game that reminds me of an all time great, though, so that’s where we’ll start.

When you watch MMA there are several things you can look at that make it different. Longer rounds, smaller gloves, and cages all come to mind.

But the one thing that makes MMA its own unique art is the combination of disparate combative specialties, namely the integration of striking and grappling. Jabbing into takedowns, knees from the clinch, and throwing elbows down at the opponent you have pinned to the floor.

There is no denying that Shavkat Rakhmonov is one of the best ground strikers in the game. Before we explain why, let’s look at a sample of some paltry ground and pound from Rakhmonov’s welterweight contemporary, Colby Covington.

Any sane judge would score this activity for Covington, and, to be fair, Covington did win this contest. But this activity does not do anything to get him closer to the fight ending finishes we are almost guaranteed with Rakhmonov.

Now let’s look at what elite ground and pound can look like with a demonstration from one of the best to ever do it, Fedor Emelianenko.

And here is what this looked like in a fight.

Now back to Shavkat. Watch how he counters his opponent’s submission attempt to stop their consciousness.

Knocking someone out with ground and pound is exceedingly rare. It really highlights how hard Rakhmonov can make each strike. It’s also not an isolated incident.

Each strike, every second of pressure Rakhmonov puts on opponents pushes them to a place where they have to move. And Rakhmonov exploits this by jumping on their neck from all angles.

This is why Rakhomonov is so terrifying on the floor. He seamlessly switches between strikes and submissions to threaten finishes at every possible turn.

As Rakhmonov aged he evolved from a reckless and ruthless brawler into a pressure fighter that forces opponents to give up submissions, even if he doesn’t pound them. Watch how he slowly slides past Michel Prazeres’s defenses to choke him.

Even when he’s not raining down punches his opponents are uncomfortable. They’re begging him to take the finish. Rakhomonov’s used a similar smothering pressure in his most recent fight to force Stephen Thompson to quit in the third round.

We can’t heap such high praise on Rakhmonov without at least considering his opponent, Ian Garry.

Garry is one of the only men in the weight class that is listed taller than Rakhomonov. He uses that length well. Garry throws hard round kicks and slides off to throw stinging counter punches. And Rakhmonov stands tall with his chin in the air. It’s not like he can’t get clipped wading into a clinch.

There are three problems with this idea.

1. Garry has not shown the power needed to reliably hurt someone like Rakhmonov.

2. Garry gives ground constantly in his fights. Against his three previous opponents Michael Page, Geoff Neal, and Neil Magny; Garry fell back onto the cage. Doing that against Rakhmonov is as good as suicide.

3. Garry looks like he hasn’t fully figured out what decisions to make in the cage. In his last fight, Garry decided to drop back on a leg lock that was never there.

Putting yourself on the fence or falling back on a leg lock is as good as suicide against Rakhmonov. It’s hard to see a path forward for Garry. Win or lose, we’ll be here next week to talk about all of the awesome grappling action this week from the UFC, WNO, and FPI.