Prospect in the Spotlight (Feb 27-28): Ramil Kamilov

Introduction

Saturday, February 28th, Kazakh-Canadian welterweight prospect Ramil Kamilov will be in action for Unified MMA, where he will be looking continue his winning ways against Romario Orozco. He will be looking for another win, as Kamilov looks to inch closer to a UFC contract. He represents Champion’s Creed Martial Arts, a smaller camp in MMA. Let’s take a closer look at this prospect as this week’s “Prospect Spotlight.”

Strengths

Wrestling/Top Game: True to his Kazakh roots, Kamilov is a very capable wrestler with a very dominating top position. He gets those takedowns efficiently and transitions to an aggressive offense from top position. He has effective and powerful ground-and-pound, which allows him to either finish the fight or find openings in the submission game. He has seven finishes, five of which are by TKO and two by submission. He’s also sound at keeping position and not getting reversed.

Hands: Outside of grappling, Kamilov has solid boxing on the feet. In addition to having a pro boxing bout, he has shown in MMA that he has solid movement and lands good combos with his hands. As stated, he has five TKOs, including ones that started on the feet. He also can feint his takedowns and set up hand combos.

Needs Improvement

Strength of Schedule/Experience vs. Fellow Wrestlers: Thus far, outside of his fight with Tom O’Connor which put him on the map, Kamilov has not taken on the highest level of competition. I’m sure competition has been hard to come by given the Canadian regional scene and unwillingness of guys to take on a guy of Kamilov’s reputation. Also, we’ve yet to see a strong-based wrestler face Kamilov, which could help negate his wrestling and have to show off more of his MMA skills. We will see as time goes on.

Outlook

UFC Prelim Fighter: Kamilov is fortunate that the UFC is always looking to grab Canadian-based fighters, as they have a long history of going to that country and trying to market to their fans. When you combine that with the fact that Kamilov is a very solid fighter, and you have a guy that will make the UFC if he keeps winning on the regional scene. He has a tough test in Orozco in this bout, but if he’s able to pass, I could see him on the Contender Series this year or awaiting a straight call to the UFC.