Zabit Magomedsharipov: 5 things that made him great

#4. Stance switching

Not many fighters, active or otherwise, are comfortable fighting from both southpaw and orthodox positions. Zabit's stance-switching served both defensive and offensive purposes. Defensively, it changed his alignment, so he neutralized an opponent's jab and low kick. In his southpaw stance, his lead hand was in the way of his opponent's jab.

Furthermore, by switching stances, he altered his body's alignment, causing his opponent's rear leg to no longer be aligned with his lead leg. Instead, his opponent's rear kicking leg was aligned with his rear leg, neutralizing the threat of outside low kicks, which his foes often sought due to his length.

Zabit was elusive, drawing out low kicks because shorter fighters are often advised to use their legs, their longest weapons, to attack the closest target, usually their opponent's lead leg. However, by changing his alignment with his stance-switching, Zabit Magomedsharipov deprived both orthodox and southpaw fighters of the ability to punish him and limit his mobility with low kicks.

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#3. Zabit Magomedsharipov's wrestling

Despite his excellent striking technique, Magomedsharipov possessed high-level wrestling informed by his past sambo experience. The former UFC featherweight often used his striking to create openings for his wrestling. Whenever he'd follow up his jab, he'd not only move his head off the center-line to evade counter-punches but also duck under his opponent's strikes. He'd maintain a low posture, bobbing and weaving to frustrate his opponents into swinging wildly.

Zabit Magomedsharipov would dart forward when his foes obliged, securing an easy body lock as his opponents were too preoccupied with landing punches on his moving head to fight for underhooks. Once he locked his hands together behind his opponent's back, Zabit used a variety of trips and suplexes that relied on his length for additional leverage in the clinch.

One of his most defensively responsible takedowns involved a back-trip. He'd secure the body lock on his foe, tugging them backward to upset their balance before positioning his foot right behind his opponent's ankle and kicking them over it as he pulled them backward.

It was a defensively responsible takedown. Unlike a double-leg takedown or a single-leg, whenever his opponents defended his body lock back-trip, Zabit Magomedsharipov still maintained control of their posture because his grip was never broken. He could chain his takedowns together by taking advantage of his opponent's upset balance from having defended his back-trip, allowing him to use his leverage for an easy suplex.