At its essence, mixed martial arts contests are simply a series of questions being answered inside a ring or a cage.
They can be extremely basic, ridiculously complex and everything in between. When you strip everything back and look at each contest and each athlete individually, what we’re really watching is competitors trying to answer questions about themselves in relation to the person standing across from them, those within their division, and at the highest levels, their place within the pantheon of past and present greats.
Before a fight begins, everything is hypothetical — competitors have ideas and plans for how things are going to play out, what their opponent brings to the table, and what they’ll need to do in order to get the better of things, with fans and pundits brandishing their own thoughts on the matter. It’s only once the referee stands between the combatants and directs them to commence with the fighting that these myriad questions can begin being answered.
Saturday night at the UFC APEX, several key questions about a group of sublime emerging talents will be asked and answered inside the Octagon, as four of the top up-and-coming competitors across three deep and competitive divisions cross the threshold into the eight-sided proving ground for the toughest tests of their UFC careers.
ARMAN TSARUKYAN VS. MATEUSZ GAMROT
The headlining lightweights are both ranked and unheralded; fighters recognized for their achievements and abundant talents by those that cover the sport closely, yet whom remain somewhat unknown to the casual to intermediate audience.
Tsarukyan is a 25-year-old standout on a five-fight winning streak that began his UFC journey with a hard-fought decision loss to current top contender Islam Makhachev. Since then, the emerging threat has been unstoppable, entering Saturday’s contest off consecutive Performance of the Night-winning efforts against Christos Giagos and Joel Alvarez.
Five years his senior, Gamrot is the more experienced member of the main event tandem, a 31-year-old from Poland who won championship gold in two divisions in Europe’s top promotion, KSW, before transitioning to the UFC. Like Tsarukyan, Gamrotlanded on the wrong side of the results in his first appearance in the Octagon, but he’s since collected a trio of stoppage wins while working his way up the competitive lightweight ladder with impressive swiftness.
For Tsarukyan, this is his first official bout against a ranked fighter and first headlining turn, and his ability to deal with each is a point of curiosity. He’s looked outstanding working his way to this position and profiles as someone with an abundance of upside, but taking the next step towards fulfilling that promise is always difficult, and there have been plenty of talented competitor — including current and former champions — that have wilted under the weight of seeing their name on the marquee for the first time.
Which says nothing of the fact that he’s facing an experienced, well-rounded foe in Gamrot; someone with plenty of main event mileage from his championship days in KSW, and the confidence that comes with three straight stoppage wins over an increasingly accomplished and dangerous collection of opponents.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t questions “Gamer” will need to answer this weekend when he steps in with Tsarukyan.
As great as he’s looked over his last three — and he’s looked great — Gamrot is sharing the cage with a young, hungry opponent brandishing all the skills needed to be an impact talent in the lightweight division that is looking to use this fight as a jump-off point for even greater opportunities. This is easily his greatest challenge since arriving in the UFC — a potential 25-minute battle with a fellow ascendant hopeful — and will require him to be at his absolute best if he hopes to secure a victory.
And even then, it still might not be enough.
In terms of the divisional picture, the upper tier of talent in the 155-pound weight class is fairly well established at this point, and Saturday’s main event pairing should answer whether one or both of these men is ready to ascend into that collection of championship-level talents, or if either or both still need another win or two before joining that exclusive group.
NEIL MAGNY VS. SHAVKAT RAKHMONOV
The co-main event is a welterweight pairing between divisional stalwart Neil Magny and undefeated emerging star ShavkatRakhmonov that feels geared to answer the numerous questions that continue to surround the streaking prospect from Kazakhstan as he looks to continue working up the rankings in the 170-pound weight class.
Magny is an established commodity — a 26-fight UFC veteran who equaled Georges St-Pierre’s mark for the most victories in the history of the welterweight division (19) last time out, and has been a mainstay in the Top 15 for the better part of the last decade. He’s long and rangy, works at a steady pace that is hard to contend with, and has the savvy to know what he needs to do in order to secure a victory and the skills to make it happen should things get challenging inside the UFC cage.
But Rakhmonov is a big bundle of question marks at this point, and this matchup with Magny should address some of them.
Through the first 15 fights of his career, the 27-year-old Rakhmonov is 15-0 and he’s never been to a decision. Over his first three UFC starts, the highly-regarded prospect has earned submission victories over Brazilian veterans Alex Oliveira and Michel Prazares, and a spinning hook kick knockout of CarlstonHarris that remains in the running for being one of the top knockouts of the year.
Having stormed through the competition to this point, this pairing with Magny should provide some clarity about how Rakhmonov handles deals with not being the taller fighter or brandishing the longer reach, how he contends with an opponent looking to work from the outside, yet dictate the pace and tempo of the contest, and someone that has the amount of Top 10 experience that Magny possesses.
There are only so many questions that can be answered and things you can learn about an athlete when they’re facing opponents that they are clearly better than, as Rakhmonov has thus far in his UFC career. To his credit, he’s dispatched them swiftly and there have been no reasons to question his advanced billing as of yet, but the only way to get a true read on a prospect and a better understanding of where their ceiling may rest is by seeing them share the Octagon with established talent with the skills to push them, which is why so many people can’t wait to see how this one plays out.
Nate Maness vs. Umar Nurmagomedov
If you’re a fan of MMA and you see the last name Nurmagomedov, you just get excited; it’s Pavlovian.
But because different Nurmagomedovs have experienced different amounts of success at the UFC level — Khabib was the lightweight champion; Said is an emerging contender at bantamweight; Abubakar is hovering in the mid-tier at welterweight — each new arrival brings the same two-pack of questions:
Umar Nurmagomedov is, in fact, related to the former lightweight champion (they’re cousins) and the pairing with Maness will help answer Question No. 2.
To be fair, Maness should probably be in here as someone with unknown upside looking to answer some of his own questions this weekend, as the 30-year-old Kentucky native has earned three wins in as many UFC appearances, with each of his last two wins coming inside the distance, and sports a 14-1 record overall. He’s looked great and would obviously get a massive boost in recognition and respect if he continues his winning ways this weekend.
But the focus is on Nurmagomedov, who carried a great deal of buzz heading into his promotional debut last January and has been justifying his advanced billing ever since.
After beating veteran Sergey Morozov in his debut, the undefeated 26-year-old secured a first-round submission win over Brian Kelleher earlier this year to push his record to 14-0. Though he has a more diverse skill set than his now retired cousin, Nurmagomedov is clearly an excellent grappler in his own right, as seven of his eight stoppage victories have come by way of submission.
Each of his last two outings have raised the floor for Nurmagomedov, and in a division as flush with talent and competitive as bantamweight is at the moment, continuing to move forward without a loss is only going to keep raising that floor and raising further questions about where the ceiling rests for the undefeated Russian fighter.
Maness is a perfect test for Nurmagomedov at this moment — a game, dangerous competitor on a solid winning streak, fighting with a chip on his shoulder and looking to steal some of his shine — and how this one shakes out should provide answers to some questions about Khabib’s unbeaten cousin, while undoubtedly creating even more.
