This Friday marks the return of Legacy Fighting Alliance for their third time in the month of October. While the card doesn’t feature as many high-end prospects as one might hope, the main event makes up for it. The story of a proven veteran versus a hotshot upstart has been told many times throughout sports and history. Clubber Lang versus Rocky Balboa in the third Rocky movie. A 43-year-old Tom Brady fending off a 25-year-old Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LV. Lightning McQueen vs. Strip Weathers vs. Chick Hicks in the classic cinema masterpiece, Cars.
This Friday we write a new chapter in that story when the unbeaten 21-year-old prodigy Ansar Khamzaev takes on the battle-tested Juliano Prescendo in the LFA 245 Main Event. Let’s dive into this old tale being told once more.
Ansar Khamzaev (6-0 Lightweight)
The undoubted A-side of this contest, Ansar Khamzaev is looking to become 7-0 as a mixed martial artist. Training mainly out of Kill Cliff FC, home to other studs like Brendan Allen, Esteban Ribovics, and Baisangur Susurkaev, Khamzaev is well set up for stardom. While at Kill Cliff, he has trained a lot with Gilbert Burns. He has also infamously trained with Khamzat Chimaev and his team, making his already fearsome grappling even scarier. At 21, he already has an air of invincibility around him. The confidence he carries inside and out of the cage is sure to make opponents second-guess themselves. As Khamzat has shown, intimidation can be an effective tool in the fight game. He is the number 13 prospect in the world according to the staff here at Prospect Vault.
As with most young fighters, his striking has a way to go, but he still remains very dangerous on the feet. An orthodox fighter, Ansar uses his explosive athleticism and the threat of his takedowns to his advantage on the feet. He throws looping hooks, often piecing together combinations early in the fight. As the fight goes on, his striking becomes more singular and one-dimensional. He is most effective when he chooses to keep his strikes straight, having dropped an opponent badly with his right cross. His power clearly hurts his opponents when it lands clean. Ansar’s kicks are crisp as well. His high kicks aren’t telegraphed, and reach the head fast. He also has a couple of spinning back kicks in his growing arsenal of strikes. He is a natural athlete and moves quickly on his feet; his explosive exchanges often overwhelm opponents.
In grappling, Khamzaev is already on a different level for his age group. His takedowns are extremely well timed, locking around the hips at record speed. Once he locks up, he lifts his opponents and dumps them. Plus 10 for style points to the young man. Once on the ground, he has been consistently able to maintain top position or get to the back. Four of his five finishes have come by submission, three of those being by rear-naked choke. He even finished Abbas Abasov with a standing rear-naked choke in under 90 seconds. Abasov is no slouch, being 6-1 as a pro with that sole loss being to Khamzaev.
Khamzaev has made legitimate prospects look very out of their depth. His squeeze is crushing for a 155lb fighter, and he will choke out plenty more fighters over the course of his career. The only potential weak spot at this point in his career would be defense on the feet. But when he can take down opponents seemingly whenever he pleases, that can be the best defense possible.
Juliano Prescendo (12-3 Lightweight)
Juliano Prescendo is 12-3 and has faced a tough schedule so far. Having been a pro fighter himself for nine years, Prescendo made some waves this week by saying Khamzaev isn’t ready and is “too young” to beat someone like him. There is a case to be made that he’s right. Still only 28, Prescendo is improving as a fighter and is on a three-fight winning streak. His last seven fights have been against legitimate competition, and he has only been finished once in his career. Once someone I had written off, he’s done a lot lately to revive himself as a legitimate prospect.
Prescendo is a striker first, and a good one at that. He has a strong build and is extremely durable, having never been finished on the feet. He throws with good volume and has a gas tank to keep up a good pace for three rounds. While this will be his first 5-round fight, he still figures to have the gas-tank advantage. He manages his distance well, and throws a varied array of strikes, but leans heavily on his jab and right cross. He can push the pace, back opponents up, and bloody them.
I wish he landed more body shots, but his barrage of head strikes can daze opponents. He can be explosive, just like Ansar, often springing up with a flying knee that is bound to get him a highlight-reel knockdown or knockout at some point. He keeps his hands up well, and only leaves his chin high when advancing.
Prescendo is a muscular, physical fighter. He can excel in a dirty fight. He has good takedown defense and solid wrestling of his own. On the ground, he isn’t a fish out of water, having locked up two career subs, but he does prefer to unload with ground and pound. He’ll be a difficult fighter for Khamzaev to control on the ground, and his unwillingness to be put away could frustrate the young fighter. Prescendo is the perfect test for Khamzaev, and a win here could get him one fight away from a shot at the big leagues, in my opinion.
Breakdown
Up to this point in his career, Ansar has mainly steamrolled through his opponents without much resistance. Even when he went to the scorecards, he was dominant and almost finished his opponent multiple times early in the fight. So, Ansar making this look easy is always a possibility. No odds have been released yet, but 95% of Tapology users back the young Russian. However, the longer this fight goes on, the more it favors Prescendo. Prescendo is a dog and will be throwing with great volume on the feet. If his takedown defense holds up well, Khamzaev could be in for a drawn-out war. Turning it into a dogfight would be Prescendo’s best path to victory.
That said, I think Khamzaev has enough grappling talent and relentlessness to bring this into his world. Prescendo may stuff a couple of takedowns and touch up the young fighter on the feet, but Ansar will eventually time the perfect takedown after Prescendo overextends a combo. Once on the ground, Ansar will control the position. As the fight goes on, Prescendo will get more reckless with his attempts to get up, allowing Ansar to lock in a submission. His squeeze, rivaling that of his partner Chimaev, will get him the finish by tap-out or pass-out.
While I’d lean toward Khamzaev, likely by 2nd- or 3rd-round submission, this fight is closer than people think. Picking Khamzaev is no slight against the well-rounded Prescendo. He is talented enough to make me and a lot of others look stupid come Friday night. Whoever comes away the winner would be one more fight away from a call-up from the UFC or MVP/PFL. Heck, if Khamzaev wins in impressive fashion once again, it wouldn’t be shocking to see him get the UFC call-up immediately given his ties to many UFC fighters. No matter how one looks at it, the main event of LFA 245 is very high-stakes. A star could be born in Niagara this Friday.
