Rajabali Shaidullaev is the future

[Ara tech]

Yuta Kubo was destroyed as expected of the prodigy Rajabali. Glory to Rajabali ! 12-0 ! 100 % finish rate ! And still undefeated !
Notice that despite not having depth in MMA, Kubo has many years of kickboxing in his resume. But of course, Rajabali was on another level.

 

[Xuh]

Why Kyrgyzstan? Do they have particularly good wrestling there or something?

Kyrhgzyz (I'll never be able to spell it so I'll just stop and leave it there before I break my fingers trying to type it) is a good wrestling country yes

2023 World Wrestling Championships - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Ara tech]

Rizin posted rajabali's bout a few days ago against Yuta Kubo (a former japanese striker with a deep background in kickboxing).
13-0, 100% finish rate, still undefeated, goat in the making !

 

[Siver!]

Worth putting a little sticky note on Koshen Akanov, too.

Kazakh who Razhabali beat in the ammies when Shaydullaev had far less experience - but who otherwise has looked pretty damn good in GAMMA and is 6-0 as a pro with 5 finishes.

Every fun 'must watch' prospect comes with a skeleton or two in the closet - I hope this guy follows in his footsteps. Organic narratives are always fun.

 

[Joinho10]

Worth putting a little sticky note on Koshen Akanov, too.

Kazakh who Razhabali beat in the ammies when Shaydullaev had far less experience - but who otherwise has looked pretty damn good in GAMMA and is 6-0 as a pro with 5 finishes.

Every fun 'must watch' prospect comes with a skeleton or two in the closet - I hope this guy follows in his footsteps. Organic narratives are always fun.

Why are you a white belt?

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

You got to love his name. : - )

 

[Siver!]

Why are you a white belt?

Not put in enough time on the mats, mate.

 

[HuskySamoan]

Great fighter but I have him as #3 FW worldwide behind Omarov and Khizriev

He's a Bantamweight fighting at FW in Rizin....Rizin always has guys jumping around weight. I wouldn't have him top 3 world wide over guys like Omarov, Abdullaev, Khizriev, Parnasse and Keita, maybe not others as well.

 

[HuskySamoan]

Why Kyrgyzstan? Do they have particularly good wrestling there or something?

It's not always fair to judge a place by its world or Olympic medals because Kyrgyzstan is population 7million and relatively low resources. But yes, Kyrgyzstan has a really strong Combat Sambo program, really strong wrestling both freestyle and Greco, they definitely do box. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are powerhouses in boxing, Sambo, Judo, wrestling.. and Tajikistan is really strong too. Kyrgyzstan is the least prominent but they all have that post Soviet structure with training methods, combat sambo and hand to hand combat being popular etc. Also 20k/20k contracts for them are life changing in countries where you make 700usd a month as a middle class worker.

Sometimes the reason why 1 country or region does better in MMA is simply because they embrace it earlier, establish a regional scene and form competent gyms. Georgia has all the potential of Dagestan but there's a lot loss talent out of Georgia due to the fact that the country itself hasn't really embraced the sport much, they don't have guys competing in the IMMAFs, they don't have a big regional scene in their area nor do they have developed and focused high level MMA gyms in their country yet. Central Asia has been embracing MMA a lot over the last 5 years and are in a huge growth boom kinda like Dagestan was 8-10 years ago.

 

[Bars]

Why Kyrgyzstan? Do they have particularly good wrestling there or something?

Yes, they took 3rd place in 2023 world championship only after USA and Japan, and in the last 5 years Kyrgyzstan was one of the most successful countries in wrestling, it got into the top 5 best wrestling countries only after countries like USA, Russia, Japan and Iran, considering that Kyrgyzstan has only 7 million people, it's one of the best wrestling countries

 

[Bars]

Worth putting a little sticky note on Koshen Akanov, too.

Kazakh who Razhabali beat in the ammies when Shaydullaev had far less experience - but who otherwise has looked pretty damn good in GAMMA and is 6-0 as a pro with 5 finishes.

Every fun 'must watch' prospect comes with a skeleton or two in the closet - I hope this guy follows in his footsteps. Organic narratives are always fun.

Yeah, I watched this fight Koshen Akanov is a legit fighter, I would say he gave the hardest fight to Rajabali and they went to decision, the only decision in Rajabali's career, he'll be a top fighter in the future, hope to see their rematch somewhere in the future

 

[JkMMA]

yea hes the shit but he needs the rizin belt before going to the ufc.

 

[Zach The Maniac]

Asaf Chopurov is the real future!! 23 years old 7-0 as a pro against good competition, and he was 30-1 as an amateur. https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/fighters/198455-asef-chopurov

 

[HuskySamoan]

Asaf Chopurov is the real future!! 23 years old 7-0 as a pro against good competition, and he was 30-1 as an amateur. https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/fighters/198455-asef-chopurov

I have Shaydullaev above Asaf shockingly enough but BW is like the deepest pool. They're like 1.A 1.B though, sorta like how I had Bashi and Matsumoto a year or two ago. Renat Khavalov and Khuseyn Shaykhaev were a couple of my top BW picks for a minute but they both with super inactive. Khavalov finally got signed to PFL.