Style and Poise: The Fundamental Brilliance of Eduard Vartanyan

Photo courtesy of Absolute Championship Akhmat (ACA)

Check out our divisional round-up for a greater understanding of ACA’s lightweight division.

Eduard “Lionheart” Vartanyan might be the most well-rounded Lightweight in the world. His discrete skills place him in a category above most, with elite striking and distance wrestling, as well as very good clinch and grappling games. His strength in various individual disciplines is not what makes him so special as a fighter, however.

Vartanyan’s game possesses an incredible degree of coherence and synergy. Every aspect of his skillset acts as one cog designed to function as part of a whole. His striking flows seamlessly into his wrestling and vise-versa. Vartanyan thrives in the interstitial areas between striking and grappling, using transitions to confuse opponents and set up offense across multiple phases.

On the feet, Vartanyan is comfortable everywhere, but prefers to operate just outside the pocket, on the edge of his jabbing range. Vartanyan is sort of a mash-up of out-fighter and boxer-puncher, using his deft footwork on the outside to set up entries into the pocket and prevent his opponent from getting to their attacks. His pocket work is very comfortable and sound, but he usually prefers to get in and out quickly rather than sticking around for deep exchanges. When pressed, he defaults to out-fighting, but still maintains a capacity to out-box opponents in the pocket and put them off their pressure.

Although Vartanyan has a clearly defined system whereby opponents are kept on the outside, feinted out of countering him in the pocket, and tricked into walking onto his takedowns, he’s not limited by that system. Vartanyan is an incredibly intelligent and adaptable fighter. He tends to start a bit slow, but the other side of the coin is that he’s always gathering information and making reads. Vartanyan is the kind of fighter that figures out how to beat his opponents mid-fight.

When elite striker, Alexandr Shabliy, was walking him down and nailing him with a consistent cross counter over his jab, Vartanyan began feinting more actively, layering his jab and adding level changes to prevent Shabliy from comfortably countering. In his rematch for the ACB Lightweight title against Champion Abdul-Aziz Abdulvakhabov, who built much of his game around the cross counter, Vartanyan saw his vulnerability in an open stance engagement and started lacing him with southpaw straight punches and round kicks.

Fundamental Brilliance

No matter what he’s doing, Vartanyan exhibits excellent fundamentals. He remains defensively responsible in all phases, sets his attacks up logically, and builds on his opponent’s reactions throughout his fights. His distance management is impeccable, and opponents are often lead around the cage as Vartanyan dances on the edge of his punching distance, sticking them with long-range pot-shots.

The jab is a crucial element of Vartanyan’s distance control. He has a nuanced, layered jab that he uses to fluster opponents on the outside and set up entries. He varies the cadence of his jab, flitting between ram-rod jabs designed to bar his opponent’s entry into the pocket and soft, throwaway jabs to draw out counters.

Vartanyan feints the way any coach would want their man to. His feints look like his actual attacks and build off them. Often fighters will show hand feints that don’t resemble their real entries, but Vartanyan feints with every part of his body, building feints into the natural motion of his stance and movement.

Foot and hand feints dull the opponent’s senses and make counters more difficult to find when he enters. Bouncing entry feints draw out more severe reactions, which allows him to slow opponents down and instill hesitance by making them miss committed shots, but also to safely set up entries from further away, while lessening the risk of a counter. He’s also constantly folding over his rear hip, showing level changes, which builds into his body jab and body-head combinations.

While Vartanyan is feinting opponents out, he’s also gathering information about their reactions so he can exploit them:

Vartanyan feints Andrey Koshkin out of his shorts, toying with his reactions to the point where he’s visibly uncomfortable attacking on Vartanyan’s entry. He’s also noting that Koshkin drops his own level when he shows a level change. Eventually he commits hard to entering behind a level change, only to meet Koshkin’s mirrored dip with an uppercut.

Vartanyan also has a knack for manipulating the rhythm and cadence of his movements, with both hands and feet, to lull opponents into a vulnerable position.

First Vartanyan bounces backwards, encouraging Koshkin to follow. When Koshkin commits to a forward step, he’s quickly intercepted by Vartanyan closing distance with him. Surprised to find himself in range so quickly, Koshkin backs out, and Vartanyan tracks him with a lazy jab, bouncing in as he flicks it out. Suddenly, Vartanyan changes tempo and darts in with a quick straight. Koshkin is caught off guard, unable to prepare a counter in time, as he was anticipating the rear hand to come on the rhythm Vartanyan had set with his jab.

The jab combines perfectly with Vartanyan’s feints and footwork to frustrate opponents and prevent them from closing distance on their terms. Vartanyan’s combination of graceful lateral movement and meticulous distance management makes forcing him into exchanges an incredibly difficult task.

Vartanyan spent large stretches of his rematch with fellow elite Lightweight, Abdul-Aziz Abdulvakhabov, controlling him with nothing more than his jab and footwork. Constant pivots, sidesteps, and stance switches keep “AAA” turning to face him, unable to plant and deliver his power. All the while, Vartanyan is feinting him out and drawing counters with the jab, making him fall short with his distance and returning it, or popping it out as he steps into range to prevent him from finding an engagement.

While more than capable offensively, Vartanyan is a defense-oriented fighter. His game is designed to limit exchanges or ensure they are lopsided in his favor through superior positioning. He is extremely skilled defensively, both in exchanges and on his opponent’s entry. He has good reactive head movement, although he significantly favors his rear hip when slipping, which limits the depth of his head movement somewhat.

While many fighters lose their defensive skill when throwing punches, Vartanyan builds sound defense into his punching form. He folds at the hip when throwing his straight, taking his head off-line, and often throws his lead hook with a slight dip underneath the opponent’s counter.

Vartanyan does most of his work on the lead, but his defensive ability also facilitates tight counter-punching. He’s always in strong position to counter as opponents advance, and can make them miss with head movement or tricky lateral movement to create openings for counters.

The slick footwork both in the pocket on the outside, as well as his defense and counters, make Vartanyan incredibly difficult to pressure effectively. If opponents are even able to track him down with their feet, they risk eating clean counters by forcing exchanges.

Although his defense is excellent with both feet on the ground, Vartanyan can occasionally be caught bouncing into range with simultaneous counters:

He’s toned his bouncing entries down since they got him finished by Abdulvakhabov in their first fight, but there’s still opportunities for sharp counter-punchers to catch him as he bounces in. Leaving your feet can be useful for covering large amounts of distance, but it’s also dangerous, as it leaves you without a base to take shots and without the ability to quickly transfer weight to defend.

The opening is only there on the way in, however, because Vartanyan uses proactive head movement well after his entries.

Vartanyan’s bouncy entries do leave him open to counters, but they also have some upside. He tends to use them sparingly, and they allow him to rapidly cover distance and manipulate the rhythm and timing of his entries. It’s the old Karate-boxer trade-off that fighters like Kyoji Horiguchi and Robert Whittaker employ: bouncing into your entries makes them hard to predict at the cost of sacrificing the ability to correct course mid-entry.

Fancy Feet

If there's any particular aspect of Vartanyan’s diverse striking skillset that stands out, it’s his feet. Vartanyan has some of the best footwork in the entire sport. Rather than sacrificing movement for positioning, Vartanyan synthesizes slick trickery on the outside with stellar positioning in pocket exchanges. He uses a blend of bounces, pivots, side-steps, and L-steps to dazzle opponents, paralyzing them to his entries or walking them onto takedowns and counter-punches.

My esteemed colleague, Danny Martin, has a lot to say about Vartanyan’s brilliant footwork:

Danny Martin: Like MMA’s footwork forebearer Jose Aldo, Vartanyan is exceptional at mirroring an opponent’s movement with his feet to mitigate their ability to out-position him.

As Gadzhiduadov takes two steps laterally to his left, Vartanyan matches him with two lateral steps to his right without crossing his feet or moving his weight off his back foot. Gadzhiduadov takes two subtle steps forward, and Vartanyan matches, maintaining his bladed stance. He constantly mirrors his opponent’s feet, while simultaneously taking smaller steps with his rear foot to find subtle angles on his opponent.

Eduard is extraordinarily disciplined with his footwork, always remaining at the absolute peak of his range, and subtly playing with the expectations of his opponents with simple maneuvers such as half-steps.

When Vartanyan feints a half-step with his lead leg, his opponent bites and tries to respond. Notice that when Vartanyan retracts his lead foot, he subsequently steps at an angle, slides his rear foot back into his stance, and then half-step feints again with his lead leg. Gadzhiduadov tries to respond to Eduard’s half-steps with his lead hand both times, so Vartanyan has both confused his opponent’s expectations and gotten a sense for how his opponent will respond. 

Vartanyan opens up with two open-side body kicks. The first as a lead, and the second preemptively beating Abdulvakhabov’s counter right hand. As Vartanyan pivots off his lead leg, he switches stances and takes an outside angle on Abdulvakhabov’s lead foot. Vartanyan steps with his rear foot and throws a straight left that misses, but parries Abdulvakhabov’s counter left hook across his body with his right hand. As he is parrying, Vartanyan simultaneously takes another step to the outside of Abdulvakhabov’s lead foot and points his toes inward. This allows him to duck under his opponent’s right hand, and pivot again to reangle and reset back into orthodox.

Ryan again: As Danny mentioned, Vartanyan is positionally responsible despite his active movement, understanding the importance of taking small steps when in close range to limit the openings presented by big, committed movements.

Vartanyan is disciplined about entering and exiting exchanges on angles to deny his opponents opportunities to counter. Here Vartanyan initiates the exchange with a pivot, and Abdulvakhabov is unprepared to counter as he’s in the midst of turning to face Vartanyan when he enters. After both fighters miss, Vartanyan shifts into southpaw and exits at an angle opposite to where he entered, making his AAA’s left hook fall short.

In contrast to his short steps in the pocket, Vartanyan’s movement on the outside is much looser, using large steps to cover more distance. Because he doesn’t need to worry about his positioning when out of range, he will quickly switch stances, bouncing in a square stance that affords him rapid lateral movement, employing and feinting direction changes to out-maneuver his opponents.

The rapid movement confuses opponents hoping to pressure Vartanyan and allows him to lead them into attacks, as he can anticipate how they will follow him much easier than they can anticipate where he’s going. He can quickly bounce back into his stance and close distance with punches or takedowns, surprising his opponent as they move forward.

Vartanyan spends most of his time in an orthodox stance, but he shifts actively, using southpaw briefly to find advantages in an exchange, or for longer durations to exploit an opening in his opponent’s game.

Switching stances provides a number of advantages in unpredictability and concealment, but often comes at a cost. A strong stance is integral to any kind of fighting sport, and spending time outside your stance, no matter how brief, always carries a risk. Without a stance to cushion blows and provide a foundation of balance to quickly respond to threats, a fighter is much more easy to hit and hurt. The trick to fundamentally sound shifting, then, becomes limiting the time spent out of stance and concealing the shifts to take away counter opportunities.

Vartanyan is clearly aware of the dangers of shifting and takes care to limit how much his changes in stance expose him. He does much of his shifting on the outside, where the range is too great for opponents to reach him as he’s out of position. When he shifts within range, he’s careful to conceal it, either by feinting to draw a reaction out of his opponent before stepping into southpaw, or by hiding them in motion, shifting off side-steps to draw his opponent onto his southpaw counters.

One of the primary benefits to shifting is the element of surprise, springing a new dynamic on the opponent before they’re prepared to deal with it. Vartanyan will fade out of exchanges and disappear into southpaw off his pivots and side-steps, immediately ready to step back in and surprise his opponent from a new stance. By hiding his shifts within his natural footwork patterns, he makes them less predictable and is able to goad opponents into stepping onto his counters, giving them even less time to deal with the stance change.

Vartanyan’s shifting greatly aides his ringcraft. Along with bouncing between stances on the outside to confuse opponents, he will quickly shift into southpaw along the cage to create a sharp angle and escape his opponent’s pressure.

He will also occasionally shift within exchanges to cover distance or create unorthodox attacks. He uses this type of shifting more sparingly, as shifting is most risky within an opponent’s punching range, when they’re close enough to hurt you as you step out of stance. Notice how he takes care to ensure his safety while changing stances. In the first sequence, he waits til Gadzhidaudov is squared up against the fence to move forward in southpaw, and in the second, he slips to his left while shifting, taking his head off-line and loading his hip for a left hook.

Most fighters who shift actively use it to find brief advantages in exchanges or to cover distance, but few are comfortable enough to spend any time at length in their second stance. Amazingly, Vartanyan shows a relatively complete, comfortable game from southpaw. If you only saw clips of Vartanyan striking from southpaw, you’d likely have trouble deducing that he’s primarily an orthodox fighter.

Vartanyan employs the traditional southpaw double attack brilliantly, playing his straight left off round kicks to the head and body. Opponents looking to parry or slip the straight leave themselves open for the head kick, while attempting to guard the head kick creates a route for the straight. Vartanyan’s kicking form isn’t perfect, but it works well enough to get the job done.

Vartanyan doesn’t just understand how to exchange in southpaw, but possesses ancillary skills and tactics that facilitate his attacks. He’ll circle off to the open side to convince opponents to step onto his straight and kicks, but he’s also capable of pivoting outside their lead foot and cracking them with lead hooks. Vartanyan has a more intelligent and nuanced southpaw game than a lot of dedicated southpaws.

One of the primary reasons fighters don’t tend to spend a lot of time in their second stance is that they lose a great deal of comfort in terms of reactions. It’s not uncommon for fighters to retain offensive craft and potency when switching stances, but it’s very uncommon that they retain defensive ability. Vartanyan is shockingly sound defensively in southpaw.

Vartanyan tends to avoid deep pocket exchanges while in southpaw so he’s likely not as comfortable as he is in orthodox, but he’s still incredibly difficult to hit clean on entry, and his deft footwork makes him difficult to hit on the lead.

Vartanyan’s craft in southpaw not only allows him to create new openings on the fly, but it compliments his already impressive distance management. In orthodox, Vartanyan prefers to operate just outside of the pocket, but fighting out of southpaw allows him to extend the distance further and force his opponent into kicking range, controlling their lead hand so they need to close more distance to land. So far he’s mostly fought out of southpaw at length to exploit a specific opening in Abdulvakhabov’s skillset, but if he’s ever having trouble with pressure or pocket boxing, the option exists for him to dissuade those ranges with his southpaw stance.

Wrestling

If you’ve read up to this point, you may have developed the impression that Vartanyan is a striker. He isn’t. It’s difficult to decipher Vartanyan’s background merely by watching him fight, as he is no less comfortable in wrestling exchanges, in transitions, or on the ground as he is on the feet. He’s startlingly well-rounded, possessing a skillset that’s more than competent even in his weaker areas and nothing short of brilliant in its totality.

There are many differences between pure wrestling and MMA, but entries might be the most difficult aspect for wrestling converts to translate. Most takedown setups need to be adjusted heavily or thrown out, replaced with MMA-specific triggers. The distance in an MMA fight means that simply shooting is unlikely to work once a wrestler starts fighting strong competition, as naked shots are easy to read and give an opponent time to defend. The addition of strikes means that wrestlers can’t easily close distance with ties like in a wrestling match, so they need to figure out how to make their wrestling work with their striking in order to effectively implement it.

Eduard Vartanyan blends his wrestling with his striking and sets up his takedowns as well as anyone in MMA.

One of his favorite setups involves driving the opponent back with a combination or a long right hand and shooting. Pushing his man back takes their weight off the lead foot and disguises his entry, allowing him to easily pick up the lead leg or press them into the cage with a strong bite on their hips.

He also likes to step through with his rear leg directly off his right hand, turning it into a sweep or an outside trip. This hides the trip behind his punch entry, surprising opponents as they try to back away from the straight.

While Vartanyan’s crafty entries often do most of the work for him, he’s also proficient at chain wrestling when the initial shot doesn’t go as well:

Vartanyan slips Gadzhidaudov’s jab and shoots a reactive double leg, but can’t get to the far hip. He immediately takes a high crotch, stepping deep with his right leg, and penetrates deeply enough that Gadzhidaudov is put off balance. From there, Vartanyan threatens to run the pipe while driving him into the cage, switching directions and hoisting the leg in the air before tripping the other out.

Vartanyan is fantastic at converting opponents’ kicks into takedowns as well. He’ll step forward as they kick and rotate his hips and shoulders through, ensuring that they land on the “closed” side rather than open stomach. This lessens the damage and makes it easier to catch, as the leg rides up his back rather than slamming into his gut.

Vartanyan’s wrestling doesn’t just serve to take his opponents down, however. As the metagame of MMA develops, transitions are becoming increasingly important. It’s very difficult to effectively apply offense against elite fighters, but the task becomes much simpler if you can convince them they’re fighting in another phase. Everyone’s ready for an overhand right from range, but almost nobody is prepared to deal with it when they think they’re defending a takedown, or jostling for position in the clinch.

Attacking in transitions between phases adds cohesiveness to anyone’s game, creating a dual threat between their striking and grappling. Prolonged and consistent success in transitions increases the effectiveness of a fighter in each phase, as the opponent naturally starts hesitating due to indecision, unsure when to focus on defending grappling or striking.

Vartanyan leaps forward behind his lead hand to enter into a double leg, but Gadzhidaudov secures an underhook and attempts to go behind. Vartanyan pummels to his own underhook and lands several knees as he’s driven toward the cage. The knees fold Gadzhidaudov enough for Vartanyan to grab a front headlock, and he uses it to angle out of the clinch and land a knee on exit. Even his failed takedowns are often converted to meaningful striking and clinch opportunities.

Clinching in Transition

While he isn’t a clinch specialist, Vartanyan is more than comfortable in the clinch. He can control opponents with an underhook, but prefers short bursts of clinch offense mixed with his distance striking. Like former ACB standout and current top-five Bantamweight, Petr Yan, Vartanyan primarily attacks in transitions within the clinch, mixing up his striking and grappling to confuse opponents. He strikes into the clinch to land a few big shots while his opponents are still adjusting to the change in distance, before quickly striking back out and resetting.

One of the most consistent ways Vartanyan attacks in transitions is by exploiting his opponent’s head movement. Slipping or ducking a shot usually involves planting your feet and dropping your level, both of which make it more difficult to avoid clinch entries. Vartanyan takes advantage of his briefly stationary opponent by slapping on a collar tie and working with knees. He’ll often convert the missed punch directly into a collar tie as well, making the entry more efficient and giving him time to attack before the opponent has recovered their positioning.

Vartanyan also uses the clinch reactively, slipping his opponent’s attacks and cleanly entering the clinch while their elbow is still away from their body. As with any sound reactive tactic, the brilliance is that Vartanyan isn’t solely waiting on his opponent to expose themselves. He’ll draw out these openings with feints, or anticipate an opponent’s likely counter after his own entry.

Vartanyan prefers to work from collar ties in the open while striking in transition, but he defaults to a more traditional underhook control along the fence. His right arm is usually controlling with an underhook while head position and a free left hand allow him to strike freely. He always maintains a dual threat between wrestling and striking, as he possesses strong body-lock takedowns and can wrestle off the underhook at any point.

In another example of his transitional brilliance, Vartanyan will often time his body-lock takedowns as opponents reach for a whizzer when he has their back. It’s a move toward escaping back control, but it also leaves them with poor balance briefly, as Vartanyan has a dominant angle to their side. Once his opponent throws the whizzer over, he can more easily trip out their leg and pressure in with his upper body.

Vartanyan uses a whizzer and head position to create space to land an elbow. Sarnavskiy’s reaction to the strike allows Vartanyan to sneak in an underhook while he’s still focused on defending his head. Next, Vartanyan removes Sarnavskiy’s right underhook and controls his wrist, allowing him to drop down for a single leg. Instead of controlling, Vartanyan holds his leg while he gets up to slow his ascent and lands a few punches, before settling into rear standing in the clinch.

One of the most important tools for a fighter who prefers to set a long distance is the ability to close distance on his terms. If you’re constantly backing up and circling, you’re constantly inviting your opponent to follow, often putting yourself in bad positions within the cage. Not only does stepping forward lessen the distance you need to travel to escape the cage, but it also allows you to provide an active threat to an opponent looking to walk you down. Because of this, clinch skills tend to fit well with outfighting.

Any striking sport which permits continuous engagements has a deep history of out-fighters who use the clinch to enforce their distance, from Floyd Mayweather to Rungnarai Kiatmuu9. The threat of Vartanyan’s clinch and wrestling allows him a buffer of safety to operate on the outside, as well as a way to dissuade aggressive opponents.

An Honorary Dagestani

Vartanyan’s grappling falls short of ACA’s resident hulk, Ali Bagov, but he is more than capable as a top player. The revelation should come as no surprise given the general theme of the article, but Vartanyan’s top game is focused around exploiting transitions. He’s a well-rounded grappler with strong defensive grappling and guard passing, but he prefers to let his opponents move underneath him so he can deal damage rather than squeezing every last bit of space in an effort for dominant control.

This sequence from knee on belly is a perfect encapsulation of Vartanyan’s top game philosophy. The position allows you a better base to strike from than a typical mount at the expense of control. While control becomes more difficult, it isn’t completely sacrificed. As with other grapplers who make their hay in transitions, Vartanyan is conscious of the openings he’s leaving and ready to exploit his opponent’s reactions. The looser control acts a funneling point, forcing opponents to react quickly and punishing them for acting. Here, Vartanyan keeps up with his man as he scrambles out, eventually forcing him to accept another perilous position in back control.

Vartanyan spends more time sitting in guard than most of the Dagestani grapplers he’s seemed to model his top game after, but he does some of his best work standing over the guard and forcing opponents to move underneath him:

Vartanyan’s standing ground and pound serves to funnel opponents into his riding by encouraging them to turn over to stop the barrage of punches. Vartanyan’s open-space riding game is lacking a bit from a control perspective, but he ensures that his opponent’s escape attempts are punished. He uses the front headlock to slow his opponent’s ascent while landing strikes, opening them up for a mat return or a re-shot.

Vartanyan is also capable of employing a more traditional passing progression. He changes directions with leg drags, times mount entries as opponents turn into him, and makes strong use of smash-passes. His finishing positions are a bit loose, often leaving space for his opponents to turn, but his riding game means that Vartanyan doesn’t mind if his opponents are able to turn into a quad pod.

When he has his man on the cage, Vartanyan’s control is a bit more reliable. He has incorporated folkstyle-based control positions that you often see used by Khabib Nurmagomedov. While his cage riding isn’t as tactically deep as Nurmagomedov or Ali Bagov, he does a great job of stifling and exploiting his opponent's attempts to escape.

Vartanyan consistently uses the typical inside wrist control to flatten his opponents out and land strikes. This control position is extremely useful when riding because the first step to standing up is building a base through posting on the ground. If the man on top can cut the escape off before his opponent has a chance to secure their base, he is in a much better position to advance and deal damage.

Here Vartanyan hooks Sarnavskiy’s ankle from a cross-body ride to destabilize his base before further collapsing him with the inside wrist. Vartanyan would later finish Sarnavskiy with a RNC from back control.

When opponents are able to build a base and stand up, their hands are occupied by posting during the transition, which allows Vartanyan to capitalize with strikes.

Conclusion and Projection

Vartanyan has expressed interest in signing with the UFC, but they’ve often seemed reluctant to sign many fighters on the Russian regional circuit. Nonetheless, Vartanyan is already a clear top 10 Lightweight in the world, along with his colleague Abdulvakhabov. There’s little reason to think Vartanyan would do anything but excel in the UFC’s Lightweight division.

Vartanyan is a nightmare matchup for aggressive strikers who struggle to cut off the cage, as well as fighters who struggle to deal with wrestlers. Only the most elite of elite wrestlers pose an issue for him given his incredible footwork and strong defensive wrestling. In an early ACB fight, Vartanyan quickly had his back taken by Ali Bagov and was choked out, but he has improved greatly as a grappler since that fight, and he holds a win over Bagov via stoppage himself.

Another advantage for Vartanyan is that he’s an excellent 5-round fighter, capable of making reads and learning how to beat his opponent as the fight progresses. His incredibly varied and systematic skillset means that he can mitigate disadvantages in certain phases by controlling where the fight takes place and attacking in transitions.

Perhaps the most difficult fight for Vartanyan would be a ruthless pressure fighter like Justin Gaethje. While Vartanyan is incredibly smart and adaptive, the other side to that coin is that he can start slow. He’s not a slow starter in the sense that he needs to get warmed up before he’s effective, but much of his defensive ability relies on collecting information from his opponent and working out their attack patterns. Someone that could storm him out of the gate and deny him time to make reads could pose an issue.

An aggressive cage wrestler like Khabib Nurmagomedov could spell trouble given Vartanyan’s struggles with Bagov, but Vartanyan also seems like one of the more difficult matchups for the UFC Lightweight champion. While his defensive wrestling isn’t impenetrable if he’s stuck on the cage, his incredible footwork and sound counter-punching make walking him down a difficult and perilous task. Lightweight is devoid of elite shot-based wrestlers, so anyone looking to impose a grappling game on Vartanyan would likely need to force him to the cage.

If Vartanyan is to excel in the UFC, he needs to act fast. Already eight years into his pro career, Vartanyan is already a complete fighter. He’s ready to start fighting top fighters right now, and he likely doesn’t have too long before he starts declining. If he’s treated like any other fighter from the Russian regional circuit, he could age out of his prime before fighting competition that befits his skill.

When I wrote about ACA Lightweight contender, Khusein Khaliev, I predicted that he would fall somewhere around the top seven in the UFC’s Lightweight division. I’m imposing no such ceiling on Vartanyan’s potential. Vartanyan is more than ready to walk straight into the UFC’s top ten right now. Given the right matchmaking, it’s easy to see him cracking the top five, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him challenge for the championship as long as he isn’t stuck in Lightweight purgatory beating five different versions of Alexander Hernandez until he’s shot.