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Prospect To Watch | Asu Almabayev
Budding Flyweight Contender Rides 16-Fight Win Streak Into Top 15 Showdown At UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs Pereira
With the arrival of Kai Asakura, who’s stepping up to challenge 125-pound champion Alexandre Pantoja in his promotional debut at UFC 310, along with a crop of exciting contenders all vying for the title, the UFC flyweight division has never been more intriguing.
Kazakhstan’s Asu Almabayev is quickly moving up the ranks as the current No. 14 ranked flyweight contender, having won each of his first three fights inside the Octagon. If you think that’s impressive, consider this: he’s won each of his last 16 professional mixed martial arts bouts.
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While Almabayev has a grapple-heavy style, he’s no stranger to putting his opponent away once he gets them to the mat. He’s finished 12 of his 20 wins as a pro, nine of those coming by submission. Throughout his three-fight UFC career thus far, Almabayev has secured 17 takedowns and recorded six submission attempts.
The 30-year-old started his UFC career in August of last year against the always-dangerous Ode’ Osbourne, who is recently coming off a Fight of the Night-earning performance at UFC 306 inside Sphere. It took only a minute-and-a-half for Almabayev to get Osbourne on his back with a takedown. Almabayev rained down blows from top position, opening a cut on Osbourne before searching for a submission in the dying seconds of the round.
The second round was virtually identical, but when Osbourne left his neck for the taking, Almabayev took full advantage, sinking in the rear-naked choke to secure a submission win in his UFC debut.
While he didn’t get the finish in his second Octagon appearance, his elite level grappling was on full display for the majority of the fight. Taking on CJ Vergara at UFC 299, Almabayev had a pretty clear gameplan to avoid Vergara’s power on the feet as much as possible. And so he did.
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In their three-round fight, Almabayev attempted 14 takedowns snf secured nine of them, leading to over nine-and-a-half minutes of control time. Vergara did a very good job getting back to his feet, especially early in the fight; however, Almabayev’s relentless pressure was eventually too much for the Texas native to overcome.
His most recent fight was very much the same, with each round being a carbon copy of the one before it: strike for about a minute, take his opponent down, land ground-and-pound or work for a submission. In the end, it was another easy day in the office.
At UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs Pereira this Saturday, Almabayev takes a leap in competition to face No. 7-ranked flyweight contender Matheus Nicolau, who won nine of his first 10 UFC fights but has recently suffered back-to-back losses to Brandon Royval and Alex Perez.
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Nicolau brings a perfect balance of striking and grappling, as well as valuable experience against the aforementioned pair of title challengers, making this the toughest matchup of Almabayev’s UFC career thus far, on paper. He enters the bout as a -170 favorite over the Brazilian and has the opportunity to break into the Top 10, taking a major step toward a title shot if he secures a victory this weekend.
UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs Pereira, live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 19, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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