One of the most talked about UFC debuts of the year will go down at UFC Vegas 56 on Saturday — though it’s not one talked about for the usual reasons. The Fight Night event is headlined by Alexander Volkov and Jairzinho Rozenstruik in a heavyweight fight. The card mainly has a bunch of up-and-comers with a few vets sprinkled in. Newcomer Askar Mozharov, or whatever his name/record is, will be making his debut in a light heavyweight fight against Alonzo Menifield.
Askar “No Mercy” Mozharov
Standing at 6’3″
Fighting at 205lbs (light-heavyweight)
27-years-old
Fighting out of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Training out of AKA Thailand
A pro record of 19-12
11 KO/TKOs, 6 Submissions
How will Mozharov do in the UFC:
Mozharov has a lot of negative energy following him into his UFC debut. From allegedly changing his name to erase losses in his career to lying about wins and losses he had on his record. With all the negatives, which are a lot, Mozharov at least brings entertainment value when he steps in the cage.
Mozharov has a background in combat sambo, muay thai, and an extensive karate background. All those forms of martial arts have played a factor in his stand-up but his grappling is lacking. It’s lacking so much that he’s lost eight times by submission. Mozharov has terrible takedown defense and tends to tap before submissions are even fully locked in. I don’t know what six guys he submitted but they might need to look at those “wins” as well.
Mozharov is an ultra dangerous guy on the feet. He opens right up throwing caution to the wind. Zero feeling out process and all ill-intentions. Mozharov throws very heavy kicks and they are impressive with the speed and the power he gets behind them. He likes to chop the legs, go to the head, and throws wheel kicks frequently. Mozharov just swings for the fences with his hands. While it’s very dangerous he’s extremely wild so he is easily vulnerable to being clipped. He does all that so fast and so hard that the stats show when he doesn’t get the finish in under a minute, he falls apart. Mozharov has no gas tank, zero ground game, poor striking defense, and awful takedown defense. Mozharov is fun but there aren’t a lot of guys in the UFC he can finish in under a minute.
How he matches up with Menifield:
It’s simple: Menifield has to survive one minute and he will take over. Menifield has only been finished once and that was deep in round two. Mozharov isn’t going deep into round two. I will say Menifield hasn’t fought someone as wild and powerful as Mozharov but- Alonzo has still fought the much better competition. Can’t see Menifield losing this so he is the easy pick here.
