Middleweights
Ismail Naurdiev (24-8; 1-1 UFC) vs. Ryan Loder (7-2; 1-1 UFC)Austria’s Naurdiev meets American former wrestler Loder in a clash of middleweights looking to get above .500 in the UFC.
Naurdiev, much like his countryman and fellow UFC Qatar undercard fighter Bogdan Grad, is a solid, well-rounded, slightly overachieving fighter of the kind that Central Europe seems to crank out by the dozens. He is neither a particularly large middleweight nor a lights-out athlete, but he is smart and well-conditioned, and employs a game plan that puts his best talents forward. As a muay thai-style kickboxer with good but not overwhelming power, he seems to understand that he needs volume and pressure to knock his opponents out.
Naurdiev is also a good opportunistic wrestler and submission artist, usually letting the flow of the fight tell him when it’s time go to the ground; he excels at sneaky takedowns on opponents who overreact to what he’s giving them on the feet. After a pair of decisions to open his UFC run, it’s fair to ask whether he can be the kind of finisher at this level that he was in Brave CF, but the basic blueprint, at least, seems to work.
Loder has more apparent upside than Naurdiev, but less actual development and, at age 34, less time to make it happen. The former NCAA All-American from Northern Iowa seems cut from the same mold as fellow middleweights Joe Pyfer and Zach Reese: a long-framed, powerfully built athlete who knows how to wrestle and brings dynamite in both hands. However, Loder isn’t quite the athlete of a Pyfer and his striking is ultra-raw. While he has big power in his punches and kicks, his footwork and head movement are poor and he is extremely hittable.
This matchup hinges on Naurdiev’s disciplined yet relentless kickboxing against Loder’s porous defense, and has “early knockout” written all over it. Loder might stave that off by going for takedowns early and often, or at least forcing clinch sequences against the cage, where his height and strength can be brought to bear and the disparity in footwork is minimized, but Naurdiev tends to deliver when he is presented with a matchup where his route to victory is so obvious. The pick is Naurdiev by Round 1 KO.
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