Ali Kadyrov is a face most MMA fans have seen in passing. He’s been hanging around a number of prominent MMA stars over the course of the last year.
In addition to bringing Gaethje, Cejudo and Usman to Chechenya for his birthday, Ali has been hanging around Khamzat Chimaev a lot.
Chimaev ended up cornering Ali Kadyrov during his debut at ACA 150 in Moscow earlier today. Chimiaev also penned an interesting post shout out for the kid in lead up to his MMA debut:
“ACA 150 will be holding the first professional outing of GRANDSON of the First President of the Chechen Republic, Hero of Russia Akhmat-Hadji Kadyrov, my dear younger BROTHER Ali Kadyrov. Brother, I know how hard you’ve been training and how great shape you’re in. In sha Allah only victory!”
Kadyrov was booked to face Islam Akbarov. Akbarov also had no professional record to speak of. The two competed at lightweight. Kadyrov is just 16 years old at this time.
The two were featured on the prelims card.
Kadyrov was cornered by Chimaev who kept yelling out instructions.
The bout opened with Akbarov attempting to leg kick Kadyrov. Kadyrov had issues judging the distance and had trouble gauging – which is expected of a novice making his debut.
Akbarov landed another calf kick. Kadyrov fired back with a low kick that clearly stung. Akbarov tried for a front kick and missed by a good margin.
Kadyrov loaded up on a strike and missed. Despite the fact he missed his confidence was boosted by the reaction he got from his opponent.
The two proceeded to trade kicks until Kadyrov went for a double leg. However he was unable to get a landing and instead got reversed from there. His lanky build makes him a less than ideal wrestler in this situation.
The two reset to a standing position.
Kadyrov ended up dropping Akbarov mid round 1. Akbarov went for a double leg takedown while he was recovering and got it.
Kadyrov managed to get back on his feet while Akbarov was still trying to pin his hips. The two ended up clinching on the fence. Akbarov then tried for a single leg. The referee actually got Kadyrov to stop holding the fence to stop the takedown.
Akbarov was late following and couldn’t pin him down so they reset back to their feet.
Kadyrov telegraphed an overhand right and got a hefty body kick in return. An attempt from Akbarov to land a takedown backfired and Kadyrov started trying to hit, not having passed his open guard.
He was landing rabbit shots on Akbarov from inside his guard. Despite the fact that these strikes looked entirely unimpressive and weren’t really landing the ref got involved and called a stop to the action with 2 minutes remaining in round 1.
MMA fans on twitter cried foul right away. The reactions to the bout varied but were mostly calling out the perceived impropriety.
“Congrats to Akbarov for securing the dictator bag ” – one fan observed.
Another pointed out “WOW!! Just when talk of fight fixing and judging etc was on the rise…a legitimate fight like this happens to help calm things down 😂”
A different fan added “Khabib is taking notes on how to improve his ground and pound” calling back to the fact that Khabib is actually a specialist in landing the ground and pound from the top without having passed first. This is a skill he observed from Georges St-Pierre and modified since.
Another fan remarked: “Someone copy paste what kadyrov said to dana white lmao 💀💀”
And this seems like a very keen observation considering that Kadyrov recently penned a letter to Dana White, condemning him for ‘letting politics get involved in sport’.
Chimaev was among the first to formally congratulate Kadyrov on social media.
“I wholeheartedly congratulate my dear BROTHER, grandson of the First President of the Czech Republic, Hero of Russia AKHMAT-HADZHA KADYROV , representative of the Republican sports club “Akhmat” Ali Kadyrov with a bright victory in the ACA 150 tournament! ⠀
Making his MMA debut against Islam Akbarov in Moscow, Eli displayed excellent fighting skills and will to win by sending his opponent off in the first round.
I sincerely wish Eli good health, further success in sports!”