Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

I really enjoy writing about Zabit Magomedsharipov. He’s skilled and technical enough that his fights are always exciting to break down, and he’s flawed enough that his opponents usually get an opportunity to have decent showings as well. I don’t necessarily think this makes for a tremendously dominant performer in the long run, but it makes for a must-watch fighter who always does at least one cool thing per bout.

In my previous two articles about the sinewy scarecrow (Part 1, Part 2), I expressed a moderate amount of concern regarding the depth of his striking. From the word go, Magomedsharipov was billed as an absolute whirlwind of striking and grappling; a complete package who would contend in just a matter of time. Beginning as early as Sheymon Moraes, I argued that was not necessarily the case with Zabit.

Plenty of analysts (including many of the folks here at The Fight Site) were picking the Bostonian boxer to give Zabit a lesson with deez hands, but for the majority of the fight, we got a toe-to-toe tactical battle where both men showed some new wrinkles to their games. Each man had their moments and each man had shortcomings on which the other capitalized. The only drawback was the fact that we were robbed of two more rounds right as the fight began heating up.

Denying the Jab

Zabit’s gameplan versus Kattar broadly resembled Moicano’s dominant victory over the Bostonian. The Russian wanted to keep his opponent at long range, kick his legs and body, and mitigate the active jab of Kattar to avoid extended exchanges. Strategically, he also used his length to draw Kattar forward into pressuring. I posited this same dynamic in the roundtable, but a Calvin Kattar without his jab and being forced to pressure is not a good Calvin Kattar.