Gergio Poullas, the wrestler behind the viral “Take Me Down, Win $1000” series, isn’t shy about calling for an aim at the top of the UFC’s welterweight division. Asked about a hypothetical wrestling matchup with reigning lightweight champion Islam Makhachev during a recent broadcast, Poullas didn’t hesitate.
“I’ll s**t on that cat, I’ll dominate him. I’ll run him through the mat. Easy match,” he said.
Pressed further on whether Dagestani-style wrestlers like Makhachev, who rely heavily on cage control to land takedowns, would be exposed on an open mat without a fence to work with, Poullas agreed there’s a real difference.
“Absolutely. If my back’s against the cage against Islam, okay, yeah, he’s going to f**k me up. That’s his style of wrestling. And I learned that, bro. I learned that. And it was really a reality check because I didn’t understand the effects of being in an octagon, of having a cage up against your back,” he said.
But Poullas maintained that the equation flips once the cage is taken out of play. “For example, if Islam sho0ts me up against the cage, I know I’m in trouble. But if Islam just sho0ts and me on an open mat, I know I have a good chance,” he said.
He called a potential matchup one of the names in his future. “I think I have a great, great, great chance at beating him,” he noted. “I also think that match can go either way, but I think it’s one of the names that I see in my future and the projectory that I have that I would love to compete against. I have a lot of respect for the guy, but at the end of the day, you got to believe in yourself.”
Poullas also weighed in on Makhachev’s most recent title defense, taking aim at the champion’s grappling-heavy approach inside the cage. “That s*it was boring as f*ck. The other guy was stylish, exciting to watch, much better technique all around. Islam just has wrestling. And so he just hugged them and it was boring to watch,” he said.
The former high school and college wrestler built his following by challenging strangers to take him down for cash, growing the series from a $100 offer to $1,000 after realizing the bigger number drove more attention.
