News GLORY Kickboxing champion Artem Vakhitov is a free agent, open to joining UFC for MMA debut

[BoxerMaurits]

His style of striking doesn't translate to MMA. He is too reliant on the high guard and the 10oz gloves.

Vakhitov has very good boxing and a boxing heavy kickboxing style, with great head movement and sneaky kicks, so it’s for sure interesting to see how that translates to MMA.

 

[Stagliano]

WTF he's only 2 years older than me ? Felt like I was following him since my teenage days lol.

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Judging just by that first pic I would say he can't throw a punch to save his life, let alone beat Pereira.
Deceiving looks.

Yeah he really looks like that, as deceiving as it comes haha




But you shouldn’t try to bully him:







Or his Dagestani friends :

 

[Young Calf Kick]

Vakhitov is P4P one of the best kickboxers on the planet and was long reigning Glory LHW-champ before Alex Pereira took his belt in their first fight.
Artem later won the light heavyweight-title back in the rematch.
Both fights ended in a razor thin decision that could’ve gone either way though.

Besides that it are two of the best fights from a technical standpoint you’ll ever see.

I will post both fights below


First fight:




Second fight:




Or if you don't want to watch the entire fights and prefer highlights, here's the highlights video of both fights combined:




Cherry on the cake :
Alex Pereira’s good-bye to Glory Kickboxing after the second Vakhitov fight.

I was there live that night, beautiful moment, not often you see Pereira show his emotions like this:

One thing I noticed about Vakhitov is how he fought against Pereira, hands up pretty much attached to his face. If you hit as hard as Pereira does, even getting punched on the guard has gotta hurt, let alone for a full fight. Commentators pointed that out aswell. What a beast! Both of them actually.

I fucking hate getting punched on a high guard and I'm sparring against cans, myself being a can. Let alone taking shots from left hook Larry Pereira lol

 

[Natural Order]

Dude has some HUGE shoes to fill with the name Artem.

 

[BoxerMaurits]

One thing I noticed about Vakhitov is how he fought against Pereira, hands up pretty much attached to his face. If you hit as hard as Pereira does, even getting punched on the guard has gotta hurt, let alone for a full fight. Commentators pointed that out aswell. What a beast! Both of them actually.

I fucking hate getting punched on a high guard and I'm sparring against cans, myself being a can. Let alone taking shots from left hook Larry Pereira lol

Yeah Vakhitov is tough as fuck, the guy has never been stopped.
Fun fact:
He finished Vladimir Mineev back in his kickboxing days

 

[moreorless87]

They gona make Artem vs Perriera if he wins against Izzy. Keep the standup going as long as possible.

I do tend to think MMA gloves will help Perriera, Artem depended a lot on the high guard in their fights.

 

[arcadeperfect]

They gona make Artem vs Perriera if he wins against Izzy. Keep the standup going as long as possible.

And have Whittaker gatekeep all the wrestlers/grapplers away from the top 3.

 

[Snowblindlove]

Im sure he has all tools, training, and training partners available to prepare for TDs being a Russian. You just never know with kickboxing cross-overs, its about having natural “hips” for TDD. Some guys have have it, some dont. Cant teach it either, if you dont have it naturally, it takes many years drilling.

Or being large enough. Derrick Lewis lacks the hips but only DC took him down he generally gets up though

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Or being large enough. Derrick Lewis lacks the hips but only DC took him down he generally gets up though

The Black Beast got that ‘just stand up’ button

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Or being large enough. Derrick Lewis lacks the hips but only DC took him down he generally gets up though

Yea, what Derrick Lewis does is pretty funny. His just “stand up” move he pulls all the time can only be done by certain folks, another move that will come mostly naturally.

 

[xhaydenx]

His style of striking doesn't translate to MMA. He is too reliant on the high guard and the 10oz gloves.

This.

Vakhitov is my favorite kickboxer, but his style really won't work. Then again, I thought Alex's style wouldn't work either and he's fighting for the belt next lol.

 

[mjfan23]

Give him a debut fight against Izzy vs Alex winner.


UFC has given title shots to worse before. Hell they have even had title fights between guys who were both coming off defeats!

 

[UFCIsNOTRigged]

This.

Vakhitov is my favorite kickboxer, but his style really won't work. Then again, I thought Alex's style wouldn't work either and he's fighting for the belt next lol.

Pereira's style likely doesn't translate if not for his one of a kind knockout power.

Vakhitov while very skilled technically is not a power threat which would put him at a tremendous disadvantage from jump in the LHW division.

Not all kickboxers need to crossover into MMA. Artem is in the right sport and should continue competing against other world-class opponents in kickboxing.

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Pereira's style likely doesn't translate if not for his one of a kind knockout power.

I get what you’re saying, but I think Poatan’s ground game isn’t too bad (I think he can hold his own when (if) he get’s taken down).
He’s been training with Glover for a very long time now and he’s a long lanky dude, which also helps.


This is from like 5 - 8 months ago or something, but still

These are with Glover:








And these are two more video’s I found:





Doesn’t look too bad to me

 

[xhaydenx]

Pereira's style likely doesn't translate if not for his one of a kind knockout power.

Vakhitov while very skilled technically is not a power threat which would put him at a tremendous disadvantage from jump in the LHW division.

Not all kickboxers need to crossover into MMA. Artem is in the right sport and should continue competing against other world-class opponents in kickboxing.

Yeh, I agree. Alex really would struggle without his power.

The problem for Vakhitov though is that the best kickboxers are in Glory at the moment and he's not allowed to fight there.

The guy really doesn't have too many options right now.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

I get what you’re saying, but I think Poatan’s ground game isn’t too bad (I think he can hold his own when (if) he get’s taken down).
He’s been training with Glover for a very long time now and he’s a long lanky dude, which also helps.


This is from like 5 - 8 months ago or something, but still

These are with Glover:








And these are two more video’s I found:





Doesn’t look too bad to me

Eso si me gusta!

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Eso si me gusta!

 

[SubsmotherLMJVG]

His style of striking doesn't translate to MMA. He is too reliant on the high guard and the 10oz gloves.

It's a problem like overeem. He he came from Muay Thai it would be a different story.

 

[David Street]

UFC should sign him but give him time to develop a ground game. One fight with a stand-up guy a year till he develops, if he fails to get a ground game like Claressa Shields, and if even "Triple C" can't help him then just let him go.