The UFC heads to France for UFC Paris this Saturday night, in a historic first event in the country. The card is set to be headlined by France’s own Ciryl Gane taking on Tai Tuivasa in a pivotal heavyweight fight. There are also altogether five fighters hailing from France on the card and seven fighters making their UFC debut. One of those debuts is Abus Magomedov who was going to fight Makhmud Muradov, but is now fighting Dustin Stoltzfus.
Abusupiyan “Abus” Magomedov
Standing at 6’2″
Fighting at 185 lbs (middleweight)
31-years-old
Fighting out of Düsseldorf, Germany
Training out of UFD Gym
A pro record of 24-4-1
13 KO/TKOs, 6 Submissions
How will Magomedov do in the UFC:
There isn’t enough talk about this debut of Magomedov coming up. Some forget Magomedov was in the finals to win the million for PFL in 2018. He was stunned in under a minute by Louis Taylor. Magomedov was a good size favorite in that fight and I think he still wins that more times than not. “Abus” has a lot of fight experience and has fought some good competition.
Magomedov is well-rounded but on the feet is where he likes to take control. He’s really good at controlling the fight at his preferred range. He can throw just single shots at times but his vision and shot placement make up for it. Magomedov uses a lot of hard feints drawing his opponent out of their comfort zone and then making them pay. He’s really slick when coming in on combinations— he can slip punches and return. “Abus” always leads combinations with a different attack and mixes up his patterns. Magomedov has power in everything he throws and has the output behind it when he comes forward.
Magomedov doesn’t do it as much but he’s a darn good wrestler and the ground game is just as good. The trips he utilizes in the clinch and just basic wrestling skills are solid. He does have six submissions and four of those are by guillotine. He’s definitely someone you can’t shoot blindly on or just duck your head the wrong way on. Magomedov is just a problem on top with his submission game along with his top position and grappling.
He doesn’t really have any glaring holes in his game. Magomedov does slow slightly as the fight goes but he’s never really gassed out. He’s only 31 too and at 185 he still is in his prime. I think Magomedov has top 15 potential.
How he matches up with Stoltzfus:
Stoltzfus has struggled bad since coming to the UFC in 2020. I mean he did get signed to the UFC off a Contender Series win but it was an injury to his opponent. He lost his first three UFC fights and just recently beat Dwight Grant. Grant isn’t UFC level and was recently released with a 3-5 record, so it wasn’t really a great win. Magomedov I can’t imagine getting beat anywhere. He easily has a big advantage on the feet with his range and striking. Stoltzfus will probably try to grind out Magomedov. I do think Magomedov is the better wrestler and grappler while just having more ways to win. I would be shocked if Stoltzfus won this.
