Ahead of his UFC Norfolk bout with Sean Brady, I found myself wondering how an exciting, athletic fighter like Ismail Naurdiev was able to defeat Michel “Trator” Prazeres in such a grappling and wrestling-heavy fight, then turn around and lose to Chance Rencountre in what should have been a more stylistically favorable bout.

Upon further investigation, it became apparent that Naurdiev had some serious holes in his game. While the following breakdown is extremely critical, it’s worth considering because Ismail Naurdiev is succeeding in spite of a seriously disorganized skill-set, meaning he could potentially have a great future ahead of him with the right coaching. The main positive takeaways are about Naurdiev’s strength, hips and sheer scrappiness, but you’ll find scattered moments of technical competency in this chaotic bout from 2019.

Ismail Naurdiev vs. Michel Prazeres

The “Wrestling for MMA” series has been largely focused on entries and how a fighter initiates wrestling sequences through their striking. While adjustments and efforts within the wrestling sequences of Naurdiev’s fights are important to analyze, it may be even more telling how he was and was not able to limit the efficacy of entries. Drawing out a telegraphed entry or forcing a fighter to get to their B-game in terms of wrestling leads to the attacking fighter having to work through tough situations to get to control positions.

A high level example is Khabib Nurmagomedov. While many fans have come to love his explosive single legs in space, he finishes at a much higher percentage when he can pressure his opponent back to the cage and work doubles or single from there, often transitioning to the bodylock or rear standing.

On those open space singles, Khabib often prioritizes speed over form, divebombing to his knees, exerting himself to work back to his base and stand with the leg before attempting to attack the remaining base leg. By standing his ground to force the single and limp-legging out of a few of those attacks, Al Iaquinta discouraged Nurmagomedov from expending the energy to grapple with him at all. Of course, Iaquinta was then in no position to deal with the striking of the champion, but the general idea has merit.

For more on this subject, read “Wrestling for MMA: Khabib Nurmagomedov” or “Wrestling breakdown: Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Dustin Poirier”.

Naurdiev’s clear height and reach advantage, while placing Prazeres closer to the level of the hips and legs in a very literal sense, were essential tools for leverage in this bout.

In line with his traditional martial arts background, Naurdiev keeps a long, nearly bladed stance, inherently preventing Prazeres from getting a clean shot on the hips or from collecting both legs. While the single leg appears to be much more readily available, you have to consider - is that an attack Prazeres is comfortable with, does he know how to set it up, what defenses will he have to penetrate to even get close enough? From what I’ve seen, no, Prazeres is mostly comfortable working against the cage, or timing striking entries for reactive shots, he’s not just going to create his own entry and snatch up the leg from stance.

Immediately to start the first round, Naurdiev utilizes the hand fight to stifle Prazeres’ attempts to close distance and maintain his preferred range. While the hand fight is much more common in open stance matchups due to the way the hands line up, Naurdiev’s bladed stance further lengthens the extension of his arms, allowing him to reach and play with Prazeres’ lead hand.

VIDEO CLIP: Ismail Naurdiev’s basic motion is conducive to anti-wrestling in MMA

In terms of strike selection, Naurdiev’s use of the low line side kick appeared to be designed to jam steps forward by Prazeres, again enforcing that range. However, naked round kicking was what gave Prazeres the opportunity to shoot reactively, timing the entry as Naurdiev’s weight was unevenly distributed. As we proceed through this round, you’ll see that Naurdiev’s strike selection and form are huge liabilities in terms of anti-wrestling.

While Prazeres was able to get both arms latched onto the single and shelf it, attempts to run the pipe were stifled both by Naurdiev’s sheer size, plus his use of the crossface and whizzer after lowering his level. Keeping Prazeres’ head off the hips turned the shot shallow, and the whizzer pulled the stocky Brazilian up taller.

VIDEO CLIP: Prazeres shoots off the kick of Naurdiev, who fights to stay on his feet

Although Prazeres was not able to finish many takedowns on the cage in a meaningful way, the technical defensive shortcomings in Naurdiev’s wrestling were apparent.

After Prazeres locked his hands behind the back through his underhook, Naurdiev was static, unsure of how to proceed. Just basing up against the fence and attempting to stay grounded, he loosened up on the whizzer and threw meaningless punches with his whizzering hand, doing next to nothing with the other. His instinct was to hunch over and plant his feet, with zero pummeling, or adjustments being made. While lowering his level was a good idea, he should have been focusing on using his legs to do so in combination with grip fighting or use of the whizzer, framing or digging for underhooks, without compromising his posture.

Naurdiev does seem familiar with these concepts and looks for them in transitions, but his form and execution leave a lot to be desired, and he typically settles into one position after the action has slowed.

Prazeres stepped off and looked to drag Naurdiev to the mat, potentially to capitalize and get to rear-standing, but once Prazeres’ weight was redirected, Naurdiev reestablished his grip on the whizzer and torqued it, barely making contact as he looked to reap the near leg for a poor man’s whizzer hip throw. He briefly looked to trap the opposite side arm of Prazeres to prevent posting, but ended up retracting it for his own post, as he had thrown himself off-balance with the attempt.

Prazeres reattacked on a double against the cage, Naurdiev - unable to dig underhooks or crossface in time, pulled Prazeres up with his whizzer while widening his base with a side-on stance. Prazeres switched off to the single, pulled Naurdiev off the cage, and capitalized on the “hunch over” defense by crunching down on the head with his free hand to send Naurdiev down to bottom turtle.

While Naurdiev was able to scramble up, largely because Prazeres was too short to cover his hips immediately upon landing, the sequence showcased a series of missteps from the Chechen-Austrian.

Naked round kicking gave Prazeres the first entry on Naurdiev, but volume kicking is his game, we can forgive that. The second entry was unacceptable.

Essentially feinting the rear kick and stepping up to Prazeres, Naurdiev put himself directly in front of the stocky grappler at close range, with his stance square, and feet narrow. It’s hard to make yourself much more vulnerable than that. So why didn’t Prazeres finish his shot?

VIDEO CLIP: Ismail Naurdiev serves himself on a platter, yet still defends the shot of Prazeres

It’s largely about the initial reaction to the feint, Prazeres did take a step back, only shooting when he saw Naurdiev hesitating and tall in front of him. He bent over and reached out before taking the actual shot, giving Naurdiev time to react. By the time Naurdiev did make contact with the legs, Naurdiev had managed to cross-face on his left side, switching off to the whizzer when Prazeres attempting to get to the bodylock through the seatbelt grip. It was great to see Naurdiev attacking the wrist as Prazeres drove in while bearing down on the whizzer, which drove “Trator” to his knees. After making space, as Prazeres reshot against the cage, Naurdiev prioritized attacking the head, apparently looking for a front choke, rather than underhooking and likely ending the sequence right there.

This preference should have been reinforced for Naurdiev when he was able to separate and get off the cage once he finally dug for an underhook while they pummeled standing. Subsequent underhooks against the shots of Prazeres largely happened by accident, as Naurdiev was blitzing forward, throwing punches from his hip.

VIDEO CLIP: Ismail Naurdiev’s wild punching form leads to one of his more successful wrestling exchanges

When he was finally grounded by Prazeres, it was largely because he stopped fighting grips, then when Prazeres pulled him off the cage with the single and looked to run the pipe, Naurdiev’s only idea was to flirt with a guillotine, creating no separation between Prazeres’ head or chest with the leg.

VIDEO CLIP: Michel Prazeres finds his first stable grounded position of the fight

My impression of Ismail Naurdiev is that he’s aware of a lot of the fundamentals of wrestling, has some good ideas, but inconsistency and an overall disorganized game are holding him back from getting his fight. He has decent hips and is willing to attack and counter from upper body positions, but he’s more likely to put himself out of position than score on those attempts. He knows how to scrap and survive in most intermediate positions, which tired out Prazeres and led to the win, but he lost plenty of precious time he could have spent implementing his own attacks.

Naurdiev can get away with a lot through a combination of timing and sheer physicality. In bottom half guard, with only a loose overhook on the half guard side, Naurdiev was able to bridge and sweep as Prazeres shifted his weight to pass. I will say that in the second round, Naurdiev hit that same reversal in a much more polished manner, punching the underhook as he bridged.

VIDEO CLIP: Ismail Naurdiev likely won this fight with opportunistic bridges from bottom half guard

The dynamic of “Naurdiev feeds Prazers a takedown entry, Prazeres looks for a fairly sound finish, Naurdiev largely gets out of it by being athletic and tall, then punishes a tired Prazeres” (VIDEO CLIP) continued for the majority of this fight. It would be exhausting to review every messy sequence and point out the high and low points for each fighter.

What changed vs. Chance Rencountre?

We saw how Naurdiev was able to come out victorious in the chaotic matchup vs. a stocky, powerful grappler - what would he do vs. a lanky, grinding wrestler?

Right from the start, Naurdiev’s striking approach looked significantly improved.

He was pressuring behind straights and measuring his attacks, not just spamming round kicks as he did vs. Prazeres. He varied his levels on attacks, feinting offense, stayed in a stable stance while minding his range. At the very least, we know that Naurdiev’s A-game is potent and worth keeping an eye on.

Initially, Naurdiev gave me hope. After Rencountre caught a body kick and collapsed in for the bodylock, he seemed to have all but stifled the janky whizzer throw attempt of Naurdiev, only to commit too early to back control and get knocked off the top.

While a bit rough in execution, Naurdiev showed strong positional awareness off his whizzer and used his hips well to pressure in and disrupt Rencountre’s base.

VIDEO CLIP: Ismail Naurdiev seems strongest and most comfortable in these whizzer situations

Given that he’s still an active kicker, those reactive entries were there for Rencountre. Disappointingly, he seemed to have many of the same problems as a defensive wrestler as he did in the Prazeres fight

Off the pressure of Naurdiev, Rencountre got to his snatch single. Initially, Naurdiev looked okay, whizzering and fighting the wrist. But he was static in this defense, never attempting to improve his position and free his leg (Jose Aldo is the best role model for this concept), only focusing on balance. Of course, with plenty of time to adjust, Rencountre circled and turned him, before running the pipe to finish.

VIDEO CLIP: Ismail Naurdiev is still lacking conceptually when it comes to defending singles

Against Prazeres, Naurdiev’s get-ups and ground escapes were entirely based on timing the passing of Prazeres with explosive movements. Trapped against the cage, with Rencountre content to hold position and make small adjustments, no such opportunities were presented.

I have to give a lot of credit to Rencountre’s approach as well. In the second round, instead of hanging back and waiting for Naurdiev to kick, he swarmed, timing the level change as Naurdiev planted to load up on a round kick.

The much lankier Rencountre had an easier time establishing control positions against Naurdiev, he was not easily shaken off by Naurdiev basing up and getting height.

VIDEO CLIP: Chance Rencountre was decently equipped to create wrestling opportunities and keep Naurdiev grounded thereafter

This article has heavily focused on Naurdiev’s attempts at preventing any grappling from happening in the first place, largely because his bottom game seems to be close to nonexistent. It’ll take time for him to improve his basic competency there, but in the interim he should be crafting a game on the feet and in transition that’s better suited to shutting down grapplers and wrestlers.

It seems like he’s done plenty of preparation to stop straight-on shots, and his transitional game from the whizzer in open space is showing serious potential, but in extended exchanges, he makes mistakes or lacks urgency to improve and separate. Given the way his striking is progressing, I think there is a chance that he can become a serious threat in this division, his athletic base makes for a high ceiling. We can only hope that he and his coaching staff recognize the gaps preventing him from getting past any comparably physical wrestlers at the weight.

Against Siyar Bahadurzada, Naurdiev was finally given the freedom to strike as he pleased, with no concern for having to wrestle defensively. With that freedom, he even showed his own offensive wrestling, running through doubles in the second and third rounds, capitalizing on Bahadurzada’s absent bottom game.

At UFC Norfolk, we may be treated to what is largely a striking-based matchup, but look out Naurdiev’s progress as a defensive wrestler. Without addressing these holes, it’s unlikely he goes very far at 170.