A confident, competent ring cutter with a thoughtful jab and good defensive instincts had stepped out of Agnaev’s body in the middle of the first round, but the moment that right hand landed it retreated and Agnaev the novice was let back into the fight. Swarming for the finish Agnaev gave no thought to picking his shots and thudded his hardest punches straight into Silva’s forearms. Frank Mir was once again astounded on commentary insisting that Agnaev was going to break his hand doing this. But the volume and pressure was too much for the wounded Silva and the fight was waved off as he fell to his hands and knees.

That bout took place in August 2017 and Batraz Agnaev hasn’t fought since. He had a second booking against Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov set for the 27th January 2018, but it was cancelled once again. His career path has been bizarre and that shows no signs of letting up but with victories over experienced, capable light heavyweights like Max Nunes and Thiago Silva he is clearly capable of facing better fighters than the 205 pound division outside of the UFC has to offer right now.

Fantasy Matchmaker

One of the few good things about Batraz Angaev’s cancelled bouts is that they show us he is willing to fight outside of Russia and outside of Eastern European promotions. With the number of great Eastern European prospects who never have the desire to head to the States, that is a bit of a relief. Obviously the UFC has the most interesting fights for Agnaev, but Bellator’s light heavyweight division is one of their best.

UFC

Were Agnaev to make the jump to the UFC today almost every match would test something that we don’t know about him. Watching Fracisco Barroso (FightMatrix #50, Tapology #28, RankingMMA #39) and Gian Villante (FightMatrix #29, Tapology #18, RankingMMA #19) scrap the other night, either could make a compelling bout with Agnaev. Agnaev’s newfound pressure on the feet and his thudding right hand—combined with a willigness to throw which Villante just didn’t have at many points in the Barroso bout—might make Agnaev seem a rough match up for Barroso and give him a good chance at a stoppage. Villante is a powerful kicker and stops a takedown well, so a bout between he and Agnaev would probably be led by the question of how well Agnaev could keep Villante on the back foot and prevent him from kicking.

For some old school UFC matchmaking—where contenders kill off contenders and nobody is safe—Agnaev could be put in against Dominick Reyes (FightMatrix #35, Tapology #25, RankingMMA #23), one of the most exciting light heavyweights to make his way to the UFC in recent years. With both having so few fights and making short work of many of their opponents both have a lot of question marks, but Agnaev’s right hand happy style and his lack of a decent left hook, or urgency in recovering from his right, would make the writer worry about matching him against a southpaw with a fast left straight and a great left body kick. Reyes, like many who excel with that southpaw double attack, seems to like some space to work on the feet though. Jeremy Kimball’s bum-rush-and-stick-to-him strategy showed that to a degree—if Agnaev could keep Reyes on the back foot and next to the fence he could potentially turn it into target practice instead of an awkward wrestling match.

To guarantee fireworks, Ion Cutelaba (FightMatrix #55, Tapology #31, RankingMMA N/A) might be a good shout. Agnaev can clearly take a shot but preparing to face that kind of puncher might actually force him to think a bit more about how open he leaves himself after unleashing that right. Jared Cannonier (FightMatrix #52, Tapology #23, RankingMMA #20) would love fighting Agnaev for the first round or so with his solid counter boxing and good left hook, but his output has consistently been a problem and his gas tank compounds this. For a quick smash and grab the UFC could throw Agnaev in with the famously chinny and hittable Paul Craig (FightMatrix #70, Tapology #32, RankingMMA #47) or Henrique De Silva (FightMatrix #110, Tapology #47, RankingMMA N/A).

Bellator

Outside of the UFC, Bellator’s top guys seem a push too far. Ryan Bader (FightMatrix #3, Tapology #5, RankingMMA #3) might struggle to take a shot but he’s got passable striking, world class MMA wrestling, and a good enough gas tank to make Agnaev regret his exploding up from the mat each time he gets put there. Phil Davis (FightMatrix #4, Tapology #8, RankingMMA #4) has also been showing wonderful grappling against men mid-stand up or wall walk. If Max Nunes can trap your hand behind your back, Davis will look for that wrist constantly for fifteen minutes. Rampage Jackson (FightMatrix #30 HW somehow, Tapology #74 HW, RankingMMA N/A) would certainly get a stand and bang fight out of Agnaev, who also seems like a mark for the left hook, so that could at least be fun to put together.

Pushing the Envelope

In terms of ‘pushing the envelope’ match-ups—where we consider the highest possible ranked opponent who seems like a good stylistic match up for Agnaev—perhaps Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua (FightMatrix #8, Tapology #9, RankingMMA #9). Rua has climbed back into the top ten by seeing off young prospects with a savvier, if more restrained, striking style. On the feet Agnaev could definitely struggle and he has seemed reluctant to use his wrestling offensive, but one of Rua’s great pitfalls has always been that he is very offensively minded in the clinch, working beautiful trips and knees, but has a bit of a blind spot for his opponent’s takedown attempts. In Bellator, Liam McGeary’s (FightMatrix #16, Tapology #17, RankingMMA #18) striking relies entirely on his length and has few defensive concerns—his ground game also consists entirely of throwing up submissions from the bottom and he rarely looks for takedowns. That is a bout that seems like it could be winnable with either good ring craft and a counter right hand, a bit of wall and stall, or smothering wrestling.

Either way this is very blue sky thinking. Let’s not break out the UFC’s punch measuring machine and declare Agnaev to be the Scariest Man on Earth just yet. A loss in his next bout would bump Agnaev down to an 80% winning rate already. But the exciting thing about Agnaev is that he seems to improve so much between fights, which is extremely encouraging because he winds up missing out on so many. Don’t bet the house on Agnaev becoming a top ten light heavyweight and pile your hopes upon the gigantic Russian’s shoulders… but know that he is out there and that when he fights it is worth watching.