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Denis Lavrentyev has been one of my favorite Bantamweights outside the UFC for a while. A slick Judo stylist with striking that bore clear influence from his training partner, Petr Yan, he had a unique but effective style. Wins over Victor Henry and Taylor Lapilus proved his quality, but he started MMA too late in life to ultimately put together a UFC run. In May of last year, Lavrentyev suffered only his second unavenged loss, but what surprised me most were the circumstances behind it. He got mopped up inside two minutes, dropped on the feet, taken down, and pounded out on the ground by a 22 year old with only two pro fights under his belt.
That 22 year old fighter was Asaf Chopurov, who I’ve now come to see as one of the best prospects in MMA. Chopurov is a young Azerbaijani who fights with experience beyond his years. He’s very active, racking up a 6-0 record in almost two years of professional competition, with two of those wins coming over quality opposition in Lavrentyev and Nikita Mikhailov.
While Chopurov has little experience in professional MMA competition, he has a decorated amateur record, where he went 34-1 and won the 2021 IMMAF tournament at Bantamweight. Chopurov is part of a growing wave of fighters who amassed lots of competition experience before going pro, but he got all those amateur fights out of the way within the span of a couple years, leaving him with ample time to develop further as he moves up in professional competition.
Packing so much experience into such a small window of time paid off for Chopurov, who is fantastically well rounded and clearly comfortable everywhere. While he wins fights primarily with his grappling, he’s looked comfortable striking on the feet and in transitions, with an especially sharp clinch game. Once he gets on top, he’s proven to be a serious threat for both submissions and damage, finishing all but one of his pro bouts.
Chopurov fights smoothly out of both stances, though he’s most comfortable in orthodox. His kicks and hip feints serve to hide his stance chances, and he’ll occasionally pick up a leg as if to kick and march into a kick from the opposite stance, walking his man toward the cage while keeping them on the outside.
Chopurov is comfortable jousting at range with fluid in and out movement, but his main goal is to move his man back to the cage and start wrestling. He has an unusual degree of comfort in close for such a young fighter and is capable of herding circling fighters with diagonal steps, steadily invading space to force them backwards. Though his willingness to engage at close range can sometimes lead to Chopurov eating a wild punch, as his comfort overshoots his defensive reactions at this point.
Once his opponent nears the cage, he’ll look to cut off their lateral movement with a leaping lead hook or wait for them to lash out, where he can duck in on their hips.
Chopurov competes mainly on the Russian scene, where strong wrestlers are abundant and pocket boxers are in short supply. We haven’t had many looks at how he performs in extended exchanges, since most of his opponents are looking to wrestle or content to back out of range, but the little we’ve seen has looked solid.
While Chopurov’s defensive reactions aren’t yet skilled enough to make him a huge threat on the counter, he’s sharp about proactively drawing out strikes to counter, and capable of closing distance in combination while keeping his feet underneath him.
In his second pro bout, Chopurov dropped his opponent with a lovely bounce-back right hand off a body hook, but he hasn’t done anything like that before or since. His knockdown of Lavrentyev came off a slick combination, hopping in with a jab and flicking out a distracting lead hook to cover a deep step into the right hand that landed over top Lavrentyev’s framing arm as he retreated.
Right now his counters are limited to giving ground and returning, but his positioning and ability to step with his punches on the front foot has impressed. There’s been a couple hints of hidden depth elided by his dominance thus far, and as his competition improves and he’s forced into deeper exchanges we’ll get to see how much deeper the well goes. But it’s clear that Chopurov’s defensive reactions are his biggest drawback on the feet. He tends to stand upright and neglects to use his hips, which when paired with his comfort invading space, often leads to him eating overhands early, and he needs to take several hard leg kicks before he offers a counter or defensive response.
In the clinch, Chopurov is a strong wrestler and striker who pairs bodylock takedowns with active striking and transitional nuance.
An interesting quirk in Chopurov’s clinch wrestling is that he’s keen to shove his head into guillotine grips so that he can quickly straighten up and duck under to the back. He’ll even pry open his opponent’s arm to create space to slot his head in. With the cage in front of him, there’s no way for the defender to turn it into a clean submission attempt unless they can break his posture, and by wrapping up his head they expose their own back.
Away from the cage, Chopurov’s grounds opponents mainly through reactive takedowns, ducking in on their hips as they punch.
He has good drive on his double legs and while his position on entry isn’t always great, he does a good job quickly changing the angle and chaining off when he encounters resistance. As he starts backing opponents up with his striking he’ll use his rear hand to cover his penetration step. The proactive setups could use some fine-tuning, but for a fighter this early in his career they’re solid.
Like with his boxing, Chopurov has not encountered a lot of resistance to his wrestling so far. But when he’s faced opponents who could reliably shut down his first offering, his chain wrestling has looked excellent.
Continued Here...
That 22 year old fighter was Asaf Chopurov, who I’ve now come to see as one of the best prospects in MMA. Chopurov is a young Azerbaijani who fights with experience beyond his years. He’s very active, racking up a 6-0 record in almost two years of professional competition, with two of those wins coming over quality opposition in Lavrentyev and Nikita Mikhailov.
While Chopurov has little experience in professional MMA competition, he has a decorated amateur record, where he went 34-1 and won the 2021 IMMAF tournament at Bantamweight. Chopurov is part of a growing wave of fighters who amassed lots of competition experience before going pro, but he got all those amateur fights out of the way within the span of a couple years, leaving him with ample time to develop further as he moves up in professional competition.
Packing so much experience into such a small window of time paid off for Chopurov, who is fantastically well rounded and clearly comfortable everywhere. While he wins fights primarily with his grappling, he’s looked comfortable striking on the feet and in transitions, with an especially sharp clinch game. Once he gets on top, he’s proven to be a serious threat for both submissions and damage, finishing all but one of his pro bouts.
Striking
Chopurov displays a good deal of poise at range, sure-footed in his stance and movement. He works actively with kicks, showing hip feints to back opponents up and conceal his attacks.Chopurov fights smoothly out of both stances, though he’s most comfortable in orthodox. His kicks and hip feints serve to hide his stance chances, and he’ll occasionally pick up a leg as if to kick and march into a kick from the opposite stance, walking his man toward the cage while keeping them on the outside.
Chopurov is comfortable jousting at range with fluid in and out movement, but his main goal is to move his man back to the cage and start wrestling. He has an unusual degree of comfort in close for such a young fighter and is capable of herding circling fighters with diagonal steps, steadily invading space to force them backwards. Though his willingness to engage at close range can sometimes lead to Chopurov eating a wild punch, as his comfort overshoots his defensive reactions at this point.
Once his opponent nears the cage, he’ll look to cut off their lateral movement with a leaping lead hook or wait for them to lash out, where he can duck in on their hips.
Chopurov competes mainly on the Russian scene, where strong wrestlers are abundant and pocket boxers are in short supply. We haven’t had many looks at how he performs in extended exchanges, since most of his opponents are looking to wrestle or content to back out of range, but the little we’ve seen has looked solid.
While Chopurov’s defensive reactions aren’t yet skilled enough to make him a huge threat on the counter, he’s sharp about proactively drawing out strikes to counter, and capable of closing distance in combination while keeping his feet underneath him.
In his second pro bout, Chopurov dropped his opponent with a lovely bounce-back right hand off a body hook, but he hasn’t done anything like that before or since. His knockdown of Lavrentyev came off a slick combination, hopping in with a jab and flicking out a distracting lead hook to cover a deep step into the right hand that landed over top Lavrentyev’s framing arm as he retreated.
Right now his counters are limited to giving ground and returning, but his positioning and ability to step with his punches on the front foot has impressed. There’s been a couple hints of hidden depth elided by his dominance thus far, and as his competition improves and he’s forced into deeper exchanges we’ll get to see how much deeper the well goes. But it’s clear that Chopurov’s defensive reactions are his biggest drawback on the feet. He tends to stand upright and neglects to use his hips, which when paired with his comfort invading space, often leads to him eating overhands early, and he needs to take several hard leg kicks before he offers a counter or defensive response.
In the clinch, Chopurov is a strong wrestler and striker who pairs bodylock takedowns with active striking and transitional nuance.
Wrestling
Chopurov is a varied and dynamic wrestler with consistent routes to his takedowns both at range and on the cage. In the clinch, he mainly looks to hit bodylock takedowns or hunt for the back:An interesting quirk in Chopurov’s clinch wrestling is that he’s keen to shove his head into guillotine grips so that he can quickly straighten up and duck under to the back. He’ll even pry open his opponent’s arm to create space to slot his head in. With the cage in front of him, there’s no way for the defender to turn it into a clean submission attempt unless they can break his posture, and by wrapping up his head they expose their own back.
Away from the cage, Chopurov’s grounds opponents mainly through reactive takedowns, ducking in on their hips as they punch.
He has good drive on his double legs and while his position on entry isn’t always great, he does a good job quickly changing the angle and chaining off when he encounters resistance. As he starts backing opponents up with his striking he’ll use his rear hand to cover his penetration step. The proactive setups could use some fine-tuning, but for a fighter this early in his career they’re solid.
Like with his boxing, Chopurov has not encountered a lot of resistance to his wrestling so far. But when he’s faced opponents who could reliably shut down his first offering, his chain wrestling has looked excellent.
