Magomedrasul Gasanov: The Best Middleweight You've Never Heard Of
Why you should know Gasanov's name and what Dustin Poirier can teach us about setting up takedowns.
The Caucasus regional scene has long been a hotbed for world class MMA talent. While their best often fail to make their way stateside due to a mix of visa issues, high pay at home, and the UFC’s growing reluctance to fork over money for elite talent, the ones that have made the transition prove the strength of competition over in Grozny. The strongest promotion in Russia, Absolute Championship Akhmat (formerly ACB/WFCA before the two promotions merged) has built talent like Petr Yan, Zabit Magomedsharipov, Askar Askarov, and Magomed Ankalaev who later excelled in the upper echelons of the UFC.
The talent on the Russian regionals is concentrated heavily around the lower weight classes, however, as athletic big men are tragically few and far between in MMA and the rare ones typically wind up snatched by western promotions early in their career. The UFC was quick to sign an 8-0 Magomed Ankalaev only two fights after winning the WFCA Light Heavyweight Championship, for example. Fighters below Middleweight tend to stick with the Grozny promotion and it’s easy to see why. Eduard Vartanyan has one of the best resumes around at Lightweight, and he was offered a spot on Dana White's Contender Series for pocket change shortly after winning an ACA Grand Prix that payed out $800k.
Magomedrasul Gasanov is the first truly elite fighter ACA has seen above Lightweight in a long while. A 20-2 fighter on a 16-fight win streak, Gasanov captured the ACA Middleweight title in 2022, dominating Abdul-Rakhman Dzhanaev. He’s since defended it four times against quality competition, running through every credible challenge in ACA’s Middleweight division.
Gasanov’s style involves the dominant wrestling, cage riding, and devastating ground and pound we’ve come to expect from the Nurmagomedovs. But his elite riding game is a recent addition to his skillset after moving to Khabib’s team. Earlier in his career he trained out of Gorets FT, a camp that produces conservative, defensively-minded strikers like their former UFC standouts, Rashid Magomedov and Ramazan Emeev. His work on the feet bears heavy influence from Gorets, with a focus on flicking jabs and Rashid-like lead leg kicks.
There are some contradictions between the Nurmagomedov game and Gasanov’s patient, jab-heavy striking, but for the most part it fits together quite well. He uses his lengthy, noncommittal attack to probe for openings on the feet, draw out reactions, and frustrate opponents, lining up the chance to set up a takedown and dominate.
Defensive Pressure Fighting
From his stance alone, one can tell right away that Gasanov prioritizes defense and survaviability on the feet. His lead hand is extended to flick at opponents, snap into a frame to deflect right hands, or tie up the lead hand of a southpaw. His weight is loaded on his rear foot, positioning his head back of his lead hand and allowing him to probe with it while maintaining enough distance to see shots coming. The rear foot-heavy stance also leaves his lead leg light to quickly throw up kicks with it.
The lead hand of Gasanov is his most effective and versatile tool on the feet. Constant feints, throwaway punches, and probing touches dull reactions and draw out wide swings that he can back away from. He’ll change levels off the jab and pair it with a lengthy lead hook to catch opponents looking to parry.
Gasanov’s own rear hand is held in front of his chin ready to parry incoming jabs, and his rear foot heavy stance leaves him poised to fold over his rear hip at a moment’s notice if the opponent follows up on their jab. His lead hand also proves effective against southpaws, where his handfighting takes on a new importance and allows him to sneak jabs inside the lead shoulder.
He’s a fairly versatile kicker from long range, operating mostly with outside leg kicks and step-up lead leg body kicks. One of his favorite hurting weapons is a front kick to the face that he’s rocked a few fighters with:
This isn’t the sharp, ball-of-the-foot-to-chin front kick of an Anderson Silva, instead Gasanov is just sort of lumbering his leg in the air and thrusting it forward. But it lands pretty consistently, and its delivery is hidden by his use of outside leg kicks and his bouncy footwork. He’ll throw it with a similar preliminary motion to the leg kick or hop back and bounce into it, shaving a bit off the opponent’s reaction time.
But more important than the front kick itself is how Gasanov uses its threat to enforce his pressure. He likes his cage wrestling so he needs a way to back opponents up, but discomfort in the pocket prevents him from walking them down and forcing exchanges. Instead, he needs to pressure long, keeping feints in their vision and convincing them to back up without exposing himself.
Once he’s established the kicks, he’ll start picking up his rear leg and shifting forward to southpaw. This plays off the threat of his leg kicks and front kick, and opponents will typically respond by giving ground. Gasanov just has to march forward to fill that space and he’s one step closer to an easy takedown entry.
He’ll often follow up with a round kick off his left side to cut off opponents trying to circle out, or stick a right hand onto the shift to catch them backing up.
Gasanov’s defensive temperament makes it difficult to answer back with kicks when opponents try to contest him on the outside. His light lead leg consistently checks leg kicks, and he has a knack for deflecting body kicks and getting around the back:
He’ll backhand the kick after it lands and parry the heel aside, forcing his man to step across his body and exposing an easy takedown or dominant position in the clinch. Since he’s so active with kicks himself and answering back is a risk, he’s consistently able to control kicking range, even against respectable kickers like Shamil Abdulaev.
Most of Gasanov’s time is spent either feinting around at long range in the center of the cage, or pressuring for a takedown. That doesn’t leave a lot of opportunity for the other fighter to do clean hitting, especially since Gasanov’s wrestling threat makes pressure a tough ask against him. But even when opponents take the front foot, Gasanov’s defensive skill opens up reactive takedowns as he makes punches miss, though mechanical flaws prevent him from maximizing those chances.
The sequence above is a good representation of the strengths and weaknesses of Gasanov’s approach. He pulls out a combination from Artem Frolov, framing and sliding back as he jabs, then ducking in on the hips underneath his rear hand. However, he’s focused primarily on getting away from the right rather than setting up his takedown, and ends up bending down at the waist and having to pivot into him to secure the takedown. He still manages to get Frolov to the cage and chain wrestle his way on top, but it misses the instantaneous nature of a reactive takedown scored with the attacker in good position, where the shot’s momentum takes the defender off their feet before they can respond.
Part of the issue with his shot mechanics is the contradiction between elements of his style we mentioned earlier. His striking is very upright, he likes to reach out with his lead hand to deflect right hands and lean back to avoid jabs, which doesn’t translate perfectly into an ideal penetration step. But the mechanical issues with his shots go beyond just that, letting in a lot of jank that doesn’t need to be there.
In comparison to his deft lead hand, Gasanov’s rear hand is downright sloppy. He’s capable of firing off a decent straight right down the middle, but as soon as the punch needs to arch even slightly, he’s throwing himself forward, losing his feet, and/or winging a wide punch disconnected from his hips.
Gasanov is obviously a strong lad, and while he’s not speedy, he’s hurt a few fighters with some of the ugliest nonsense you’ll see in MMA. Right now Gasanov isn’t a huge power threat on the feet, but if someone could teach him how to sit down on his power shots rather than leaning forward, there’s a knockout puncher waiting to be born. The mechanical issues are especially odd because his straight right is pretty much fine - he can torque his hips into it and even land it with precise timing on the counter occasionally, but as soon as his elbow comes out he’s doing his best Ronda Rousey impression.
Despite Gasanov’s janky rear hand, it starts looking a lot better when it’s used as a setup tool. He accomplishes a lot of his pressure by initiating forward shifts from long range, and his long rear hand is one of his most reliable setups.
He’ll toss out a long, noodled-armed blow from all the way outside and let himself fall forward into southpaw while weaving into a left hook. It covers a ton of ground, and the extreme commitment on the first punch usually convinces the opponent to back up. Once they’ve reset their positioning and gotten ready to counter, the weave takes him underneath it and his left hook is there to surprise them as he pops back up.
The same entry also works great for setting up takedowns, and the threat of the level change further opens up his weaving left hook. Gasanov will sometimes sell the takedown threat by ducking low and tapping the leg, then pop back up to land his hook as the hands shoot down to defend a takedown.
Gasanov’s overall process looks somewhat similar to the new generation of Nurmagomedov fighters who stay all the way out behind their rangy kicks, or all the way in with their wrestling. However, he does more work with his hands and is more insistent on pressuring opponents toward the cage.
The clip below summarizes Gasanov’s pressure game well:
Gasanov approaches Ibragim Magomedov cautiously, probing at his lead hand and feinting level changes. When Magomedov threatens an attack, he backs out and reengages, marching into southpaw behind a kick feint to close distance and further back Magomedov up. Once he has a good position with Magomedov circling along the cage, he controls the lead hand and uses an overhand to cut him off, shifting forward into a high crotch for the takedown.
Strangely, Gasanov really likes to hit high crotch shots in these positions, with both hands around one leg and his head outside the hip. Typically a double leg would be ideal with an opponent circling away on the cage - the direction of movement is the same direction they need to go in order to slip his inside shoulder out of alignment and fight his positioning on the high crotch, while a double leg would capture both hips and block further movement. But as we’ll see when we look at his wrestling, Gasanov often prefers to chain wrestle through less than ideal high crotch positions over going for both legs.
Transitional Dominance
Like most fighters of his ilk, Gasanov excels in the clinch, but his work on the inside isn’t the standard Dagestani wrestler fare. His inside work revolves less around hunting for bodylock takedowns and more around capitalizing on transitions and punishing opponents with strikes. Consequently, he spends a lot more time fighting for grips on the head than most takedown artists.
The new breed of Abdulmanap-trained fighters like Umar and Usman Nurmagomedov shy away from Khabib’s all-out pressure game, relying more on an all the way in or all the way out style. One of the downsides of this style is that they can struggle to proactively establish the clinch if their opponent doesn’t run onto it. Gasanov eschews this weakness with his comfort at the edge of his punching range and his eye for discrete clinch entries.