Road To UFC Gives Us New Prospects

First Things First

The UFC put on two events this weekend and only one of them is worth a rewatch. We're going to discuss that one and a new Japanese fighter that has all the makings of a star. Before we get into all of that I need to ask for your help. Erik Magraken of Combat Sports Law sent me the following on Twitter.

Thanks for reading, donating, and sharing. Now let’s get to today’s article.

Road To UFC 2 vs Another Apex Event

This weekend the UFC gave us two events. One was a treat and the other was just another dose of Apex medicine.

Before the Apex event, I previewed the action by examining the grappling style of Roman Dolidze. Dolidze is an ADCC veteran turned leg locking slugger. His fights are awesome when he's on and when he's not he hovers between boring and confusing. Unfortunately this recent one was more of the latter.

Don't watch Dolidze’s fight from this weekend. It's not worth your time. Instead, read this review of his game to understand why he can make his jiu-jitsu work so well.

That Apex card buried the finals of Road To UFC Season 2. This event really is worth your time and we'll be taking a closer look at it today.

Road To UFC

Road To UFC is an awesome product that the UFC cooked up in the background. Originally a reality show, this new iteration of it is simply a tournament between some of the top prospects in Asia. The winner is rewarded with a UFC contract.

I'm a fan of Road to UFC because of its fluff; zero. The finals were over in less than 90 minutes and now we have some cool new prospects.

Rongzhu - Shin Haraguchi

The final fight from Road to UFC S2 was a match between Rongzhu and Shin Haraguchi. After the first round, this fight mainly looked like a mismatch.

Haraguchi was an undefeated prospect who previously wrestled for Japan's national team. Rongzhu was a young veteran with 29 fights on his record at only 23 years. Yes, you read that right.

Alongside the massive experience gap, Rongzhu towered over Haraguchi. In the first round, Haraguchi was able to get his wrestling going and the fight looked competitive.

By the second round, Rongzhu had picked up Haraguchi's timing and game plan. That’s when Rongzhu started hurting him.

Shelving someone’s leg is a great way to reduce their mobility. You’ll see shelfs a lot in freestyle wrestling, but it is largely an underexplored technique in BJJ and MMA. For all my BJJ practitioners reading this, shelfs will pair well with wrestling up on single legs from half guard.

In the final round, Rongzhu took a finish off an exhausted Haraguchi.

Rongzhu looks like a fun all-rounder. I'm not sure how far he'll go in the UFC on this second run but he's a welcome addition to the roster.

Haraguchi looks too small to compete at lightweight. If he can compete at featherweight he could make a run.

Right now featherweight’s top 15 is very grappling light. Haraguchi's pedigree and physicality could help him make a splash quickly.

Yizha - Kaiwen Li

The middle fight of Road to UFC 2 brought a quick finish in the first round. Oddly enough, the fight featured another young veteran like Rongzhu. Yizha had nearly 30 fights, previous Road to UFC experience, and half of his wins have come from submission.

Yizha earned a featherweight contract with this arm bar finish and I’m excited to see what he can do. Anyone that has 14 submission wins is welcome.

The hottest prospect from Road to UFC S2 fought in the first fight of the night.

Rei Tsuruya - Jiniushiyue

Flyweights Tsuruya and Jiniushiyue opened the Road to UFC S2 finals. Really the fight was a grappling clinic from Tsuruya.

After getting his striking going for a bit, Jiniushiyue secured double under hooks and put Tsuruya on the fence. Before he could do anything with them Tsuruya put him on his back.

The finish came at the buzzer after Tsuruya nearly snapped Jiniushiyue's spine.

I’m calling this a modified twister because I’ve never seen anyone do it and I’m not sure what else to call it. The twister itself comes wrestling, where its known as the guillotine. It turns your neck one way and your hips the other way to crank on your spine. This can be used to pin someone in wrestling, or just injure their spine to get the submission in jiujitsu.

Tsuruya was a wrestler before an MMA fighter so I’m not surprised to see him hunt these modified spine locks. Tsuruya has actually used other twister variations in this tournament alone.

Since we’re looking at that fight 👆 I’d be doing us a disservice not showing Tsuruya’s finishing sequence from that event.

Shoulder strike to throw and niche armlock is ninja shit. Why isn’t the UFC doing more to promote this athlete?

A Fight For International MMA

Rei Tsuruya should be one of the hottest prospects in MMA right now. He's 21, has junior Olympic wrestling experience, and he's finished eight of his nine fights. Plus he's one of the highest ranked fighters from the ever-important Japanese MMA market. It's confusing why the UFC isn't doing more to announce he's coming, or at least promote the product he was a part of.

I can only assume that the UFC isn't promoting Road to UFC and its fighters because of just how much they have going on. Seriously, they had two events on one night in the same place. Not consolidating these two events to make a bigger spectacle of the whole thing is looking like a long term miss, especially when previous Road to UFC winner Jeong Yeong Lee fought on the prelims of Dolidze and Imavov’s Fight Night. This long term miss comes at an interesting time in the global MMA world.

The UFC is essentially synonymous with MMA in the United States, and, probably, the entire world. Still, there are the beginnings of an interesting land battle for MMA right now.

The Middle East exploded as a top destination for fights in the past couple of years. They're set to have one of the biggest boxing fights ever, and later this month Saudi Arabia is hosting the PFL vs Bellator super card.

The Bellator brand is also bringing Usman Nurmagomedov to Paris for a major lightweight title fight. This fight will happen a few months after the PFL brings Cedric Doumbe to Paris to fight fellow French resident Baissangour Chamsoudinov. That event sold out in less than a day.

In Tsuruya's home nation of Japan, Rizin is still the main show in town. ONE Championship, for all of their failings, also has a major foothold in Thailand.

Can the UFC compete in every market all at once? They can suck up talent and wait for competitors to run out of money like they have in the past, but, that strategy may no longer be viable.

The UFC is being brought to court this year for an antitrust lawsuit. Depending on how that goes, that will severely limit the UFC's ability to continue dominating the market. It certainly could stop their power to monopsonize it.

Empires collapse at the intersection of spread priorities and unforeseen events. They spread resources, can't monitor their territories nor the people in them, and, slowly, unrest combines with small scale skirmishes to undo whatever hold they have on their territory. The lawsuit might end up becoming that unforeseen event, a catalyst for the collapse of the UFC’s current empire.

No one can deny that the UFC is in a league of their own right now. They are the defacto A player across all of combat sports.

With the UFC's antitrust lawsuit coming later this year, you have to wonder if the UFC has the resources to fight that battle while maintaining their iron grip on the industry and promoting promising talent across underserved markets. We’ll be here to make sense of what’s going on and pick up the pieces after they’ve fallen.

Thanks for reading!

Share & Support Open Note Grappling