To kick off the new year, the UFC had UFC Vegas 46, and the main event was as eventful as we hoped. Two elite featherweight strikers went head to head in a striking frenzy that left most of us amazed. Read below for my recap of the main event, Calvin Kattar vs. Giga Chikadze.
UFC Featherweight Bout – Main Event
The closing UFC Odds at your top sportsbooks were: Calvin Kattar (+195) and Giga Chikadze (-240).
For most of us, Giga Chikadze appeared to be the obvious play. Kattar was coming off of a brutal loss against Max Holloway about a year ago, and Chikadze was riding a 9-fight winning streak with many impressive victories over some legendary UFC fighters. Yet, Kattar proved to us why he was such a valuable dog.
In the first round, Chikadze appeared confident and started with a heavy low kick, followed by a little frenzy of combinations. Kattar fed back a low leg kick and started to apply some pressure. Chikadze tried to avoid strikes, but this gave Kattar the chance to secure a takedown and pour down some ground and pound work while in half guard. Chikadze turned to his fight IQ and was searching for a guillotine, but Kattar reversed and took his back looking for an RNC until the horn.
In round two, Chikadze led again with a kick to the ribs and a left hook; Kattar eats the strikes while forcing forward pressure. Kattar was on top of his countering; Chikadze landed some nice kicks and Kattar would counter with his right, his jab. Kattar was backing him up with straight strikes; he aimed for a takedown and Chikadze defended. In the last couple minutes of the round, Chikadze ate a clean elbow and then both exchanged heavy hits. Kattar scored a takedown in the last seconds of the round.
The third round showed the confidence of Kattar shining. He was applying forward pressure and just slowly piecing apart Chikadze. As Kattar was striking high, Chikadze was aiming at the legs. Kattar shot for a takedown but didn’t succeed. This round was a striking frenzy with Chikadze finishing the round with a nice combination.
Now we enter our later rounds. We are in the 4th, and now Chikadze is applying pressure again. He knows he is down in rounds, so this would be his chance. Kattar shot early for a takedown but was quickly pushed away, so he added in a pair of jabs. Kattar landed a few nice punches and an uppercut, and you can see the damage on Chikadze’s face as his cuts started to open up. To add to that damage, Kattar ended the round with a pair of jabs and a brutal elbow.
Now is the fifth and final round, and you can see Chikadze wants to finish this fight; it’s the only way for him to win at this point. But Kattar caught him with a perfect combo; Chikadze countered, but Kattar kept walking forward and landed another jab and uppercut. In the last couple of minutes in the rounds, Kattar landed another pair of elbows, and Giga was down! Kattar aimed for a ground and pound but the horn sounded to finish the round.
Calvin Kattar won via unanimous decision over Giga Chikadze.
Calvin Kattar proved a lot of us fans and bettors wrong on Saturday night. Even after a year hiatus and coming off of a bad loss against Max Holloway, Kattar showed us how he is still a lethal striker.
Besides our main card winner, we had several other dog-winners on this card: TJ Brown (+190), Court McGee (-105), Jamie Pickett (+130), and Bill Algeo (+110).
Up next in the UFC, we have an extravagant card at UFC 270: Francis Ngannou vs. Ciryl Gane on Saturday, January 22, 2022 at the Honda Center.
I truly believe this is a beautiful, eventful card from top to bottom. In the prelims, we have Kay Hansen vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius, Ilia Topuria vs. Charles Jourdain, Rodolfo Vieira vs. Wellington Turman, and more.
On the main card: Cody Stamann vs. Said Nurmagomedov, Sergey Spivak vs. Greg Hardy, Michel Pereira vs. Andre Fialho, (co-main) Brandon Moreno vs. Deiveson Figueiredo, and (main event) Francis Ngannou vs Ciryl Gane.
For the best UFC Picks and Odds, visit Bookmakers Review.