Limelight My big stupid hype trains thread.

[Bubzeh]

Magomed has been in my bookmarks for a few months. Didn’t realise he fought a few weeks back. Audibly burst out laughing when I see the KO this afternoon.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Magomed has been in my bookmarks for a few months. Didn’t realise he fought a few weeks back. Audibly burst out laughing when I see the KO this afternoon.
https://twitter.com/grabaka_hitman/status/1509931001916629048?s=21

He's literally the next guy on my list to get through. Most chilled out spinning back fist I've ever seen

 

[Hellowhosthat]

#17 LW Evan Elder got the call.

 

[TorontoTO]

Cezary Oleksiejczuk

Country - Poland
Weight Class - Welterweight
Age : 22
Promotion - FEN
Record : 8-2

This one is a catch up one from getting hold of a slighty older card, but I wanted to mention him. Yes he's the younger brother of Michal and yes he has a fairly similar fighting style on the feet, with nice tight hands and decent speed, taking a primarily boxing based approach. Where I think he differs a bit is he has excellent takedown defence, consistently sprawling on his Dagestani opponent here, quite often timing pushing his hips forward to actually end up on top which is a nightmare for wrestlers. Having such good takedown defence allows him to put constant forward pressure on too as he's not so worried about the takedown.

Another one who's fought a lot at a young age and both his losses are from when he was a teenager.

Seems he also takes his weight seriously unlike his older brother. Cezary is 6'1 and a Welterweight and Michał is a inch shorter and up two weight classes at LHW and not a very buff guy. Michał would do amazing if he moved down to MW at least

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Magomed Kabardiev

Country - Kazakhstan
Weight Class - Lightweight
Age : 26
Promotion - Naiza
Record : 8-0

Pretty impressive performance against UFC vet Valmir Lazaro by this dude. One of those very casual fighters who just waits for their opportunity and then goes with meaningful offence. It was amusing watching Lazaro try and take him down too. Dude is just ridiculously calm in there, topped it all off by the most calm spinning back fist in history which @Bubzeh posted a few posts back which was basically just "Guess I'll knock you out now"

 

[Bubzeh]

Magomed Kabardiev

Country - Kazakhstan
Weight Class - Lightweight
Age : 26
Promotion - Naiza
Record : 8-0

Pretty impressive performance against UFC vet Valmir Lazaro by this dude. One of those very casual fighters who just waits for their opportunity and then goes with meaningful offence. It was amusing watching Lazaro try and take him down too. Dude is just ridiculously calm in there, topped it all off by the most calm spinning back fist in history which @Bubzeh posted a few posts back which was basically just "Guess I'll knock you out now"

For a male mixed martial artist, this guy is pretty impressive.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Irakli Kuchukhidze

Country - Georgia
Weight Class - Welterweight
Age : 24
Promotion - WEF Global
Record : 4-0

Moar Georgians. I like the look of this dude. He's one of those wrestlers that looks to do constant damage with ground and pound. Just got his opponent down and started beating the absolute fuck out of him, absolutely painted the canvas with his blood before getting the stoppage. Good times.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Waldo Cortes-Acosta

Country - Dominican Republic
Weight Class - Heavyweight
Age : 30
Promotion - LFA
Record : 6-0

Waldo has been carving out a path for himself as one of the view promising up and coming heavyweights on the regional scene for a while now, but in beating hype train alumni Thomas Petersen, he really set himself apart from the rest.

Primarily a boxer, but against Petersen he showed that he seems to have perfected his own version of the Derrick Lewis "Just get up bro" defensive grappling style as every time he got taken down by the wrestler he just turtled and stood up again. Add to that him having a really good gas tank and a lot of people are going to tire trying to take him down before getting knocked out on the feet once they can't do it anymore like Petersen did.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Felix Klinkhammer

Country - England/Germany
Weight Class - Welterweight
Age : 29
Promotion - ARES
Record : 8-0

Not sure if this dude is actually English or German or both, but he trains out of London Shootfighters and has the MVP karate style on the feet. Now the dude isn't as explosive or powerful as MVP, but he's elusive and what sets him apart is he's able to chain the in and out karate style into some really good wrestling and then dominate the grappling exchanges when he gets there. I've seen him twice now and both times as soon as he's managed to take his opponent down he's dominated then en route to a first round submission finish, once by kneebar and once by RNC.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Ivan Tena

Country - USA
Weight Class - Featherweight
Age : 23
Promotion - Combate Global
Record : 4-0

Babyfaced prospect who looks good everywhere. He has powerful striking, he has good wrestling, he has a good sub game, he puts tremendous pressure on his opponents and he has the cardio to do it for the full fight. He fought Geraldo Almonte who's better than his record suggests and trains at Sanford and just broke him before knocking him out to follow up the win that got him on my radar against fellow prospect Timothy Cuamba. Maybe a bit green for the likes of the Contender Series yet, but next year I suspect he'll be ready.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Simeon Powell

Country - England
Weight Class - Light Heavyweight
Age : 23
Promotion - PFL
Record : 6-0

Simeon is still a little rough around the edges, but there's an undeniable athleticism, speed and power to his fighting. In a division with a lot of slower fighters like LHW those skills could take him far. Fighting for the 2nd time in about three weeks, he had to handle the attempts of Fortis MMA's Clinton Williams to cram him against the cage and grind out a win, but he responded by managing to get up whenever he was taken down and then casually knock him out with a sneaky knee that the camera barely even caught.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Mateusz Rebecki

Country - Poland
Weight Class - Lightweight
Age : 29
Promotion - FEN
Record : 15-1

It took me a while to get around to watching Rebecki's last title defence against Arkadiy Ospinyan as it took a while to get hold of the fight and by the time I had I already knew it was a decision win so I wasn't really expecting anything special.

After watching though, Ospinyan deserves some kind of medal for surviving. Rebecki came forward constantly throwing power for a full 5 rounds, landing well, wrestling well and his sprawl looked great. The fact he still had the energy to throw flying knees in the 5th round after the level of output he was putting out there was scary.

His opponent basically had one good moment, but that one moment was an absolutely flush high kick with shin to the dome which Rebecki barely even noticed, so I guess you can add an iron chin to his power, cardio, athleticism, pressure etc etc.

If he isn't on the Contender Series this year it's criminal, tbh it's criminal he's not in the UFC already as I think he can compete with the top 15 in a stacked lightweight division straight away and on this evidence I'd say he's probably the best lightweight outside the UFC.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Daniel Torres

Country - Austria/Brazil
Weight Class - Featherweight
Age : 28
Promotion - EMC
Record : 13-5

After a fight with Max Coga and going 1-1 with Parnasse it was interesting to see how good Torres is against a normal level of fighter that I usually end up judging prospects against. He certainly passed the test of looking amazing as he kept calm fundamentals while his opponent was throwing wild shit at the start of the fight before taking over and countering harder and harder. Got to give him props on his ground and pound too as it's absolutely vicious and I particularly like the way he doesn't bother engaging in the guard if he doesn't have to so he can find angles to throw absolute hammers and huge elbows at his opponent. Fought a weight class up for this one too.

 

[TorontoTO]

Waldo Cortes-Acosta

Country - Dominican Republic
Weight Class - Heavyweight
Age : 30
Promotion - LFA
Record : 6-0

Waldo has been carving out a path for himself as one of the view promising up and coming heavyweights on the regional scene for a while now, but in beating hype train alumni Thomas Petersen, he really set himself apart from the rest.

Primarily a boxer, but against Petersen he showed that he seems to have perfected his own version of the Derrick Lewis "Just get up bro" defensive grappling style as every time he got taken down by the wrestler he just turtled and stood up again. Add to that him having a really good gas tank and a lot of people are going to tire trying to take him down before getting knocked out on the feet once they can't do it anymore like Petersen did.

Since 99% of HWs don't have the dexerity or grappling abilities to punish him for turtling up and standing up, he will do well

 

[TorontoTO]

Mateusz Rebecki

Country - Poland
Weight Class - Lightweight
Age : 29
Promotion - FEN
Record : 15-1

It took me a while to get around to watching Rebecki's last title defence against Arkadiy Ospinyan as it took a while to get hold of the fight and by the time I had I already knew it was a decision win so I wasn't really expecting anything special.

After watching though, Ospinyan deserves some kind of medal for surviving. Rebecki came forward constantly throwing power for a full 5 rounds, landing well, wrestling well and his sprawl looked great. The fact he still had the energy to throw flying knees in the 5th round after the level of output he was putting out there was scary.

His opponent basically had one good moment, but that one moment was an absolutely flush high kick with shin to the dome which Rebecki barely even noticed, so I guess you can add an iron chin to his power, cardio, athleticism, pressure etc etc.

If he isn't on the Contender Series this year it's criminal, tbh it's criminal he's not in the UFC already as I think he can compete with the top 15 in a stacked lightweight division straight away and on this evidence I'd say he's probably the best lightweight outside the UFC.

Literally the one guy from Poland I want signed right now, and he isn't even getting paid well by KSW like Gamrot was to delay his UFC debut. No idea what the UFC is doing not signing him

 

[David Street]

UFC signed your #22 Charles Johnson flyweight
UFC Fight Night 212 (TBD) – Muhammad Mokaev

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Mariusz Ksiazkiewicz

Country - Canada
Weight Class - Middleweight
Age : 32
Promotion - LFA
Record : 10-1

Ksiazkiewicz should probably have got a UFC contract a couple of years ago but the next best time to give him one is now. Dude is just an absolutely massive MW, who seems absurdly strong, long and hard hitting at the weight. Having utterly destroyed the #1 LHW in Canada in Graham Park he absolutely demolished Alessandro Gambulino with a knee to the body and really nasty ground and pound.

A UFC quality fighter period.

 

[TorontoTO]

Mariusz Ksiazkiewicz

Country - Canada
Weight Class - Middleweight
Age : 32
Promotion - LFA
Record : 10-1

Ksiazkiewicz should probably have got a UFC contract a couple of years ago but the next best time to give him one is now. Dude is just an absolutely massive MW, who seems absurdly strong, long and hard hitting at the weight. Having utterly destroyed the #1 LHW in Canada in Graham Park he absolutely demolished Alessandro Gambulino with a knee to the body and really nasty ground and pound.

A UFC quality fighter period.

Will always support my fellow Polish. This is the man to beat Izzy ;P, no bias

 

[Feniamin]

Will always support my fellow Polish. This is the man to beat Izzy ;P, no bias

Just curious do you know any Polish fighters from ex-USSR? I think there were some Ukrainian girl, who I think repatriated to Poland and that pretty much it. Seems like there is people with Polish surnames but they identify with Slavic population of country where they were born or live currently.

 

[DonQ94]

Mariusz Ksiazkiewicz

Country - Canada
Weight Class - Middleweight
Age : 32
Promotion - LFA
Record : 10-1

Ksiazkiewicz should probably have got a UFC contract a couple of years ago but the next best time to give him one is now. Dude is just an absolutely massive MW, who seems absurdly strong, long and hard hitting at the weight. Having utterly destroyed the #1 LHW in Canada in Graham Park he absolutely demolished Alessandro Gambulino with a knee to the body and really nasty ground and pound.

A UFC quality fighter period.

I remember having a bet on him in his contender series fight and he managed to lose despite having top position for large portions of the fight. Looked awful there to be honest.