“I took that personally,” Calvin Kattar about Giga Chikadze looking past him ahead of UFC Vegas 46 fight
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Calvin Kattar talks about beating Giga Chikadze
Calvin Kattar did not like Giga Chikadze looking past him leading up to their fight at UFC Vegas 46.
UFC matched up two killers from the featherweight division for their first fight event of 2022. At UFC Vegas 46, #5 ranked Calvin Kattar took on #8 ranked Giga Chikadze in the main event and lit up the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. Calvin put on a real dominating performance against the streaking fighter to end his winning streak.
Heading into the fight, the featherweight division was put in a tricky situation when Max Holloway, who was booked to face the champion Alexander Volkanovski in a title shot, pulled out of the fight leaving the spot open for the featherweight contenders. Giga Chikadze, who was then on a 7-fight winning streak wanted to replace the “Blessed”. Chikadze spoke more about being the next for a title shot than focusing on his opponent at UFC Vegas 46. Calvin Kattar was determined to prove the “Ninja” wrong and he did.
In the recent episode of MMA Hour hosted by Ariel Helwani, Kattar spoke about his win against Giga and his opponent’s “mismanaged focus” heading into the fight which caused him to fail inside the octagon. Kattar beat Chikadze via unanimous decision and left the rising fighter with serious damage on his face.
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Calvin Kattar says he sawas “mismanaged focus” in Giga Chikadze
“Post-fight I am down to talk about it [title fight debate], but prior, it just seems like mismanaged focus,” said Kattar on Chikadze worrying about the title shot with an opponent to face. “You can’t really control the fight with the champ. You have a fight with me and you’re overlooking me. I took that personally, as they say.”
Kattar was coming off a devastating loss against the former champion Max Holloway. Exactly one year later, the fighter reintroduced himself to the entire division by putting on a striking masterclass. Kattar now ranks just one spot below the new title contender, Chan Sung Jung, who will be facing the champion Alexander Volkanovski on April 9th in PPV event UFC 273.
Calvin is also 3-1 in his last four fights and is down to fight either Brian Ortega or Yair Rodriguez, ranked #2 and #3 respectively, in his next bout. A win against any of these two would definitely make the “Boston Finisher” a favorite for the title shot.
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Prateek Athanur
(2944 Articles Published)