Introduction
Friday, June 12th, Hungarian-British middleweight prospect Norbert Novenyi Jr. will be in action for Hexagone, where he will be looking continue his winning ways against Mathieu Duclos. He will be looking for another win, as Novenyi looks to inch closer to a UFC contract. He represents London Shootfighters, a solid camp in MMA. Let’s take a closer look at this prospect as this week’s “Prospect Spotlight.”
Strengths
Wrestling: Novenyi’s father is a well-known Hungarian wrestler and Novenyi followed in his father’s footsteps. Novenyi is a high-level wrestler who is very explosive and technical when it comes to the takedown. It’s almost effortless for Novenyi. He also transitions his takedowns to submission grappling. Once on top, he has a great mix of ground-and-pound and submission skills. He can also grapple a bit off his back, as he does have multiple triangle choke wins. Overall, he’s a threat on the ground.
Boxing: In addition to his great wrestling, Novenyi also has some sneaky good hands and power when throwing on the feet. He has good fundamentals on the feet, using footwork and feints to land effective strikes. While not the biggest kicker, Novenyi does have some strong kicks. He’s just far more boxing oriented when it comes to striking on the feet, and Novenyi can definitely put you away with one punch.
Needs Improvement
Counter Game: The one thing I’ve notice about Novenyi is he thrives on the offensive. When he’s controlling the pace, distance and where the fight takes place, he’s very hard to deal with. When he’s forced on the back foot and has to counter-wrestle and counter-strike, that’s where he starts to lose some of his momentum. That was seen in his lone loss to Dalton Rosta, where he just seemed to be a step slow, as he was having to counter on Rosta’s striking and wrestling attack. As long as Novenyi is able to stay aggressive on his front foot and implement his game, he’s in great shape.
Outlook
UFC Top-25: It’s amazing to me that Novenyi is just 26 years old and already this successful in MMA. It feels like just yesterday he was debuting in Bellator and that was 2018…eight years ago! He’s an incredibly experienced combat sports fighter that just continues to get better. I think Novenyi is a win away from the UFC and he can definitely do it here against Contender Series vet Matthieu Duclos.
MMA Intel 