Scouting Report: Amir Albazi

Amir Albazi

Born: Oct. 27, 1993 (Age: 29) in Baghdad
Division: Flyweight
Height: 5’5”
Reach: 68”
Record: 16-1 (4-0 UFC)
Association: Xtreme Couture
Stage of Career: Prime

Summary: Albazi is an outstanding grappler who has developed competent standup, with no clear weaknesses that are simple to exploit. In terms of his grappling, he is remarkably well-rounded. He has effective takedowns, damaging ground-and-pound, excellent submissions and decent top control. While no one element is overwhelming, the complete package is difficult to deal with, especially since he has the impressive cardio to threaten with it for all three rounds. Many opponents wind up getting submitted or lose decisions off the strength of his grappling alone. However, Albazi has a solid striking game, too, relying primarily on the jab, cross and leg kick, which are all fairly decent. His left hook and overhand right are poor, but he does have one truly scary weapon in his right uppercut—a technical, accurate and powerful punch he used to knock out Alessandro Costa. His strongest attribute in the standup department can be found on the defensive side, especially his fine sense of distance and well-timed retreats, which make it difficult to clearly outstrike Albazi. Additionally, he has shown plenty of intelligence in his fights, making smart decisions about when to strike and grapple while displaying steady progression over his outings. A number of elements to his game improved in his most recent assignment.

STRIKING

• Stance: Orthodox.
• Hand Speed: Average.
• Jab: Straight, and he doubles up on it nicely. However, it either has fine speed and is a little light or else carries impact but is a little slow.
• Cross: Straight and technical enough, but it is telegraphed. With that said, it comes with some power now and resulted in a flash knockdown of Costa.
• Left Hook: It has a solid arc and is reasonably accurate but sorely lacks rotation and thus has little power to it. He can be countered off of it, too.
• Overhand Right: Awkward, technically flawed blow that often lands with the side of his hand.
• Uppercuts: Lethal from the right side and by far his best punch. It is a technical, accurate shot with some power.
• Solitary Striker or Volume Puncher: Mostly throws a punch at a time, with the occasional two-punch volley.
• Favorite Combination(s): Has not yet showed a preference, but he floored Costa with a two-one.
• Leg Kicks: Solid, hard and technical enough.
• Body Kicks: Fairly accurate but lack power.
• Head Kicks: Does not throw them.
• Chains Kicks to Punches: He has paired a body kick with punches before, though it lacked power.

Albazi has made considerable progress with his striking during his UFC run. His main weapons are the jab, leg kicks and right cross. All are solid enough and have afforded him some success against the caliber of opponent he has faced, though they are not overwhelming by any stretch of the imagination. Albazi recognizes the weakness in his left hook and overhand right, so he rarely throws them. He makes his living on the feet with his defense. In addition to his wonderful sense of distance and an inane ability to retreat, he blocks punches well with his hands. As a result, it has proven difficult to get the best of him in striking exchanges.

CLINCH

• Physical Strength: Extremely powerful for a flyweight.
• Technique: Uses good form on his takedown attempts, giving little space to his opponents.
• Knees: Almost never throws them in close quarters, as he has proven far keener on getting takedowns.
• Elbows: Does not utilize them.
• Defense Against Knees/Elbows: Excellent, as he either gets a takedown or bails, choosing not to hang out in the clinch for long.

Albazi is stout and technical in the clinch, a position from which he has obtained many takedowns. He focuses on wrestling there instead of delivering strikes. However, he is difficult to hit, as he will often exit into open space if his takedown attempt proves unsuccessful.

GRAPPLING

• Wrestling from a Shot: Features a beautiful single-leg. He has fast, sudden reactions to opponents getting close, then runs the pipe in a circle until they are on the ground. Albazi has a fast double-leg, too, and can even hit it while reacting to opponents coming forward.
• Wrestling in the Clinch: He has hit single-legs and even an outside trip in the clinch. Clearly strong with a powerful grip there.
• Takedown Defense: Difficult to say, as he has not faced many good wrestlers. Zhalgas Zhumagolov took him down with a nice double-leg in Round 1, though Albazi stuffed all further attempts in Round 2.
• Ability to Return to Feet: On the one occasion he was taken down in the UFC, it was near the end of the round, and Albazi decided to stay on the bottom.
• Submissions: Excellent. He can roll onto his back from mount with a tight triangle—he tapped Malcolm Gordon with it—and can also neatly take the back and attack with rear-naked choke attempts, which ultimately succeeded against Francisco Figueiredo.
• Defense/Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from the Bottom: Looked up to par during the brief period he was there against Zhumagolov. Albazi tied him up well, controlled his biceps and limited his ground-and-pound, all while seeking separation to throw solid elbows to the crown of the head.
• Top control: Can push opponents back down when they are building a base and controlling the wrists, though he does not do the same for the hips. He also gives a lot of space when he postures up for ground-and-pound.
• Ground-and-Pound: Fires solid, accurate right hands to the midsection and head, putting part of his body into them. He can also transition from the body to head nicely with hard, accurate elbows. Throws at an above average rate of fire, too.

Albazi is a well-rounded grappler who is good to great in every aspect. He excels as a wrestler from either a shot or in the clinch, with an especially beautiful single-leg. Opponents have managed to stay upright against Albazi, but he always looks for opportunities. Once on top, he has decent control and excellent ground-and-pound that has continually improved over the course of his UFC run, with precise punches—especially the right hand, which carries significant impact—and hard, accurate elbows. For opponents who become too wary about ground-and-pound, Albazi is terrific at taking the back and attacking with rear-naked chokes. He has proven to have more than serviceable takedown defense. While no one aspect of his grappling game can be considered overwhelming, when taking in totality, it is quite formidable.

INTANGIBLES

• Athleticism/General Physical Strength: Immensely powerful with average dynamism, especially for a flyweight.
• Cardio: Outstanding. He did not slow down at all until late in the third round of an averaged-pace fight against Zhumagulov. Even then, the drop-off was not all that noticeable.
• Chin: Albazi has never been hit hard by a good striker, but he has never been hurt in any of his UFC fights so far.
• Recuperative Powers: Not yet known.
• Intelligence: Deft at deciding when to strike and when to switch to grappling, and he has shown consistent improvement during his UFC run.