“The Austrian Wonderboy” returns this weekend as Ismail Naurdiev is our Featured Fighter of UFC 239.
International Fight Week is here, and the UFC has again placed on a stacked card in Las Vegas, Nevada. This article highlights a fighter that fanatics have to maintain a near eye on this weekend. 22-year-old Ismail Naurdiev is our Featured Fighter for UFC 239, as he faces Chance Rencountre in a welterweight contest.
Our closing Featured Fighter turned into featherweight Kevin Aguilar (read right here), who lost a lower back-and-forth choice to Dan Ige at UFC Greenville.
Who is Ismail Naurdiev?
Ismail Naurdiev (18-2) is a 22-yr vintage mixed martial artist born in Grozny, Russia. “The Austrian Wonderboy” is a welterweight combating out of Salzburg, Austria. In the UFC, Naurdiev is only 1-zero; however, he inspired closely in his quick-notice debut against Michel Prazeres. Naurdiev defeated the Brazilian veteran unanimously, even earning a 10-8 spherical over the BJJ black belt.
Ismail Naurdiev’s Style:
Naurdiev is a nicely rounded-competitor who is, more often than not, a wrestler. However, he has earned the “Austrian Wonderboy” moniker because of his flashy kicks and wild spinning assaults. The 22-year-old has 11 wins through knockout and 5 through submission. In 20 bouts, Naurdiev has reached the judges’ scorecards in 3 instances in his MMA career.
Striking:
Even though he is a wrestler, Naurdiev does his exceptional work status. Naurdiev has an expansion of spinning assaults that can make him susceptible at times but is lethal while he lands them. His overall kickboxing recreation is strong, and he is a good counter striker. Naurdiev has flaws,, though, with not setting up his strikes and throwing kicks at punching variety. However, Naurdiev has strength in his strikes, which are fired fast. He has desirable timing, which was highlighted in his win over Daniel Skibiński. Naurdiev rotated far away from the fence and fired a brutal knee that stuck Skibiński off protection and became enough to complete the contest in only forty seconds.
At only 22 years old, Naurdiev has a ton of promise in his standup. This is enhancing from combat to fight, but has some holes within his placing that opponents could make the most of.
Grappling:
Being a wrestler first, Naurdiev has true takedowns and displayed his floor game-closing day out in opposition to heavily favored Michel Prazeres. Prazeres is a third-diploma BJJ black belt who currently has eleven submissions in his MMA profession. Naurdiev showed fantastic scrambling and reversal skills, reversing Prazeres multiple instances to earn a pinnacle position. The Austrian also defended 8 of 11 takedown attempts by way of Prazeres – which was his weakness in preceding bouts. Prazeres has beaten many warring parties along with his wrestling. However, Naurdiev countered it fairly effectively. Offensively, Naurdiev is good at taking his foes lower back – where he has three rear-naked choke victories. Despite having five submission victories, Naurdiev often favors landing floor-and-pound while on top and prefers to preserve position over going for submissions.
His closing combat with Prazeres on brief notice was genuinely dazzling and appeared to enhance preceding weaknesses, like his takedown defense. I accept that Naurdiev is a strong prospect and is still persevering to improve at simply 22 years old.
Prediction: Ismail Naurdiev vs. Chance Rencountre
In a welterweight bout, Ismail Naurdiev (18-2) faces Chance Rencountre (thirteen-three) at the Fight Pass prelims. Rencontre is a former Bellator fighter who trains out of Alliance MMA alongside Phil Davis and Dominick Cruz. Rencontre is a grappler who’s 1-1 within the UFC. Most recently, Rencontre submitted Kyle Stewart in the first round again in January after losing his debut to Belal Muhammad. The 32-12 months antique has nine finishes, six via KO/TKO and three via submission.
