Introduction
Tuesday, August 23rd, Georgian welterweight prospect Amiran Gogoladze will be in action for Dana White’s Contender Series, where he will be looking continue his winning ways against Darrius Flowers. He will be looking for another win, as Gogoladze looks to impress and earn a contract with the UFC. He represents 13 Legion, a lesser-known camp in MMA. Let’s take a closer look at this prospect as this week’s “Prospect Spotlight.”
Strengths
Kickboxing: Watching a Gogoladze fight is a treat if you are into technical, violent striking. Gogoladze likes to take the center of the cage and get to work quickly. He’s aggressive but accurate and technical. He mixes up his striking well, using great punches and kicks from a distance while hammering his opponents in close range with elbows and knees. Also, he has nasty one-punch knockout power, but if he hurts a guy that doesn’t put him out immediately, he has nasty ground-and-pound that can get the job done. His last six wins have all seen him knock out his opponent in the first round (one of those is a submission from strikes).
Experience at Young Age: Gogoladze is just 24 years old and he already has 16 professional fights. That is highly impressive, especially seeing as his pro debut came when he was just 16 years of age. He started his career taking on lower level regional fighters, but he took on increasingly stronger competition as he went along. 2018 was the year he really started stepping up in that competition level and started smashing through tough guys. His best win comes over former top prospect Pavel Kusch, which really put him on the map. The combined record of his last six wins is 66-25.
Needs Improvement
Can Fade As Fight Goes On: The one knock I have on Gogoladze this far is that he can fade as the fight goes on, which can likely be attributed to his aggression and the fact he throws with power frequently. Fights that go past the first round have seen Gogoladze slow the output, and if he’s going against a guy that has weathered the storm or avoided a lot of the big shots he throws in early in the fight, the tides turn. His most recent example was against Handesson Ferreira, who was able to not only avoid being on the receiving end of a firestorm of strikes, but imposed his game plan and gassed Gogoladze as the fight went on.
Outlook
UFC Midcard Bonus Collector: Gogoladze is certainly a guy that will be on the UFC roster sooner rather than later. I figured he’d get on the UFC roster after besting the aforementioned Kusch, but he had that blemish to Ferreira in his follow up fight. However, he’s since won three fights in a row in vicious fashion and caught the eye of the UFC, which is why he has this Contender Series spot. He has the style that the UFC brass loves and he’s still young, yet experienced. All that lends well. He has a striker’s matchup in his Contender Series fight with Darrius Flowers, which will likely not only be exciting, but very violent.
MMA Intel 