After absorbing a record-breaking beating in his last fight,
followed by a full year away, there were plenty of questions
hovering over Calvin
Kattar on Saturday night, and he answered them in resounding
fashion.
In the main event of UFC on ESPN 32: Kattar vs.
Chikadze at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, “The Boston Finisher”
smashed Giga
Chikadze for five full rounds that were just as one-sided — if
not quite as statistically ridiculous — as the defeat Kattar
himself suffered at the hands of Max
Holloway last January. In so doing, Kattar blunted the
trajectory of perhaps the fastest-rising fighter in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, as Chikadze had
been on a seven-fight win streak in the Octagon, and might well
have parlayed a win over Kattar into a featherweight title
shot.
Even more impressive than the simple fact of the win is the manner
in which Kattar accomplished it. While he employed his wrestling in
the first round to rack up dominant positions, submission attempts
and nearly three minutes of top control, for the remainder of the
fight, Kattar took it to the former Glory Kickboxing champ on the
feet, and dominated there as well. Kattar’s relentless forward
pressure, constant stance switches, clever short elbow strikes and
above all, his accurate jab, combined to make a bloody mess of
Chikadze’s face while denying him the space and time to get his
vaunted kicking game going.
In the wake of “UFC Vegas 46,” here are some matches that ought to
be made for the triumphant Kattar and the rest of the main card
winners:
Given the relatively recent loss to Holloway, Kattar is further
from the title picture than Chikadze would have been had the roles
been reversed, but he did show fans as well as the UFC’s
matchmakers that he is still very much a factor. What he needs is a
matchup with a featherweight of similar ranking and momentum whom
he hasn’t faced yet. While there are several fighters who fit that
description, including Chan Sung
Jung, who is now set to replace Holloway in a short-notice
title shot in April, Emmett won just last month at UFC 269 and
should be ready to fight around the same time that Kattar is. The
Team Alpha Male product is on a four-fight win streak, yet flying
slightly under the radar due to the injuries that have kept him on
the shelf for long stretches. At 36, if he’s going to make a title
run in earnest, he needs a signature win just as badly as
Kattar.
When Collier came back to the Octagon last summer after nearly
three years away from the sport, he barely looked like the same
person. Formerly a light heavyweight — and before that, an
absolutely ripped middleweight — he had put on what appeared to be
50 pounds of fat, and now pushed the heavyweight limit. The jokes
came quickly and easily, especially when he got splattered in 45
seconds by Tom
Aspinall. However, Collier has gone 2-1 since then, with the
sole loss coming in a narrow split decision against Carlos
Felipe. In Saturday’s co-main event, “The Prototype” absolutely
ran through Chase
Sherman, hurting him on the feet, hauling him to the canvas and
choking him out in just under half a round. In his postfight
interview, Collier was offered Justin
Tafa, to which he replied that it would be fine,
assuming Tafa could make weight this time. Zingers aside, that
matchup would indeed be suitable, but Barnett would be even better:
a scrap between two rotund, yet nimble big men, and two of the more
surprising success stories at heavyweight right now.
You can make a pretty good argument that “Raw Dawg” is one of the
five best flyweights in the UFC right now. His 3-2 mark in the
promotion is deceptive; his wins all range from good to elite —
finishing Kai Kara
France is becoming a serious feather in the cap — and his
losses came against now-champ Brandon
Moreno and his most recent challenger, Alexandre
Pantoja. Due to timing, however, Royval’s next step will
probably need to be a lateral one, especially if Moreno retains his
title in his trilogy fight with Deiveson
Figueiredo next week. Perez and Schnell fight at UFC 271 next
month. Whoever emerges victorious should face Royval, with the
winner right on the door of a title shot, though it’s worth noting
that Perez’s recent loss to Figueiredo should have him watching
next week’s title fight with a similar, but opposite rooting
interest to Royval’s.
Chookagian is, to put it bluntly, a huge problem for the UFC
flyweight division. A nightmare. She’s the clear No. 3 woman in the
group after Valentina
Shevchenko and Jessica
Andrade, but her losses to those two were so brutal and
one-sided that it will be a long time, if ever, before we need to
see either rematch. She’s simply too good for just about anyone
else to handle, and she’s one of the busiest fighters in the
division, meaning she will continue knocking off other contenders
and prospects at an alarming rate unless otherwise occupied. That
conundrum, combined with her not generally being very exciting to
watch — she set a UFC record Saturday by making it to 10 wins
without a single finish — makes “Blonde Fighter,” as I say, a
problem. Hence her matchup on Saturday, a rematch of a tepid but
uncontroversial win over Jennifer
Maia that took place barely two years ago, and with no
particular reason to think it would go any differently the second
time. The only rationale behind that rematch is that Maia has
already lost to Shevchenko as well; it was a keep-busy fight that
didn’t move either woman appreciably closer to another title shot,
but at least didn’t send any fresh faces to the back of the
line.
OK, fine. Chookagian vs. Taila
Santos.
One left-field choice to throw out for Chookagian’s next opponent
would be Bellator MMA flyweight champion Velasquez, or at least
one of her top contenders such as former champ Ilima-Lei
Macfarlane. The move might actually benefit both promotions,
and would it be any more surprising than Demetrious
Johnson or Corey
Anderson being let go? However, as a naïve idealist, I’m not
going to be the one calling for what would amount to firing a woman
on a three-fight win streak. Given her disinclination to move up to
bantamweight, Chookagian’s next opponent needs to be ranked highly
enough to be able use her as a springboard into the title picture;
otherwise there’s no reward for the promotion’s risk. That rules
out the way-too-green prospects like Erin
Blanchfield or Casey
O’Neill. Santos, who blasted Joanne Wood
in November to notch her fourth straight win since dropping her UFC
debut and looks very much like the real deal, is the call.
On a night that three highly touted debuting prospects entered the
Octagon as betting favorites over veterans, Borshchev was the only
one to emerge unscathed. Better yet, “Slava Claus” delivered
himself a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus by paralyzing
Dakota
Bush with one of the nastiest body shots you’re likely to see
all year. Given that his appearance on the Contender Series last
fall ended with a one-shot knockout as well, there’s an obvious
temptation to see what the man can do next. However, after only two
and a half years and seven fights as a professional mixed martial
artist, he’s almost certainly not ready for even a Top 25 opponent
— yes, Khamzat
Chimaev is the exception that proves the rule. “Gritz” is no
stranger to testing UFC blue-chippers, as he fell short against
Claudio
Puelles last month at UFC on ESPN 31.
“Senor Perfecto” pulled off a gutsy win over fellow Dana White’s Contender Series alum Joanderson
Brito on Saturday, getting slammed around for much of a rough
first round, then taking over and tuning up the fatigued Brazilian
for the balance of the fight, even threatening to finish in the
closing seconds. Afterward, Algeo got on the mic with a bizarre
callout of Chikadze that wasn’t funny or insulting so much as
confusing, leaving plausible doubt that he knew the difference
between Georgia the state and Georgia the country. In any event,
the truly ridiculous part of the speech was the idea that at 2-2 in
the UFC, Algeo had any chance of actually getting a fight with a
contender. However, it was his second time outlasting and grinding
down a more heralded prospect in the Octagon, and may go down as
his best win so far. In the ultra-deep featherweight division,
Algeo’s job is probably more than safe, but he needs at least three
more wins in a row to even make a blip on the rankings radar.
Brown, who defeated Charles
Rosa on Saturday’s undercard, is also 2-2 in the UFC, also
coming off his best performance, and finds himself in the same spot
as Algeo, professionally speaking. Easy match to make.
