Bonus Fight Study: Kattar vs. Ige (Patreon)

In an effort to hit their quota for guaranteed live events, the UFC continued on with their Fight Island series in Abu Dhabi. Even though fighters and their coaches are dropping out left and right due to testing positive for COVID-19, fight cards are continuing on even if it means some athletes are flown in literally last minute. In a probably unrelated note, only four fighters have been popped by USADA since the majority of states have enforced lockdown measures, and of the four, one of them is Kelvin Gastelum, who tested positive for trace amounts of marijuana in relation to his bout with Darren Till back in November of 2019. It’s possible that fighters are taking advantage of the situation to juice themselves to the gills, but without proper training partners and access to facilities, it might be a wash. Either way, at least that the athletes, coaches, and staff are tested constantly for COVID-19. Just remember these times when the UFC tries to point out that they always care about the athlete’s safety in regards to PEDs: it’s just a front to make the sport seem safer than it actually is, and once the ability to make money gets compromised, you can bet the house that the “safety of the fighters” goes right out the door.

Anyways, one of the plus sides of constant events is that we get match-ups like Calvin Kattar vs Dan Ige. In this Wednesday night fight, Kattar beat Ige by unanimous decision, further cementing himself as a contender in the men’s featherweight division. For those of you that haven’t been paying as close attention, the UFC’s men's 145-pound weight class has some interesting fighters making their ways up the ranks. Granted, they’re not nearly as stacked as the men’s bantamweight division, but the featherweights have some solid hitters in the works. With Volkanovski still holding on to the title, he has no shortage of opponents that would love a shot at the belt. One of these opponents making their case is Kattar, and he just might emerge 2020 as the quarantine king.

If Kattar looks familiar, it’s probably because you last saw him less than two months ago at UFC 249, where he TKO’ed Jeremy Stephens. Sensing that he has a bit of momentum going on, he accepted another tough match-up in Dan Ige, a veteran of fighting under quarantine rules. That’s right, Ige also fought during the lockdown, in a closely contested split-decision win over Edson Barboza. Kattar and Ige fought within a week of each other, so from a timeline perspective, both were on a similar trajectory. Featherweight contender fights don’t usually headline events, in fact before Kattar vs Ige, there wasn’t a single one that took place in 2020. Wanna know how many featherweight contender headliners there were in 2019? Four, and half of them had Korean Zombie as the main event. One of the remaining two featherweight contender main events happened to involve Calvin Kattar when he faced off against Zabit Magomedsharipov. It was Kattar’s first headlining opportunity, and even though he lost a decision, he definitely learned a lot from that experience, and it showed in this fight.

Ige on the other hand was out to prove himself in his first time headlining an event. Even though he’s the one on a six-fight win streak, his last two matches were split decision victories, with many claiming that Barboza got robbed. Knowing that anything other than an emphatic victory wouldn’t give him the leverage he needs to try and get a title shot, Ige came into this match-up like a man on a mission. Kattar is a great fighter and one of the bigger guys in the division. At 5’11” with a 72” reach, he definitely uses his length to his advantage. Ige is the shorter fighter at 5’7”, but his 71” reach isn’t too far off. We saw last month when Josh Emmett beat Shane Burgos that size and reach are great, but they’re definitely not the be-all, end-all. Styles make fights, and the ebbs and flow of combat can change in an instant. When Kattar got in the cage against Ige, we were given another great featherweight performance.

Heading into this fight, a lot has been made about Kattar’s jabs and for good reason. Against Ige, he showed a variety of jabs that you don’t often see in MMA, period. It seemed that Kattar favored the quick vertical fist jabs and piston-like arm jabs when he wanted to occupy Ige’s vision so he could set up the right straight, but when he wanted to hurt Ige and remind him of the jab’s power, he dropped his weight before pumping out the strike and made sure to throw his shoulder behind it. One of his set-ups was reminiscent of the Diaz brothers: instead of throwing a jab first and then a straight, Kattar threw them almost at the same time, like he was hitting a speed bag. It didn’t do a lot of damage, but it threw off the timing of Ige and made him wary of future follow-ups. Like former featherweight champion Max Holloway, Kattar uses his jabs to probe and gather intel so he can formulate other offensive attacks. It looked as if Kattar’s constant pinwheel motion with his hands kept Ige from lunging in, and it was clear whenever Ige came forward, he would eat counters on the way in. The majority of Ige’s attacks came from a straight line, and when he did attack it was with singular strikes or pairs. These were easy enough for Kattar to either evade outright or defend and return fire. Of note were the uppercuts to the body, left hook over Ige’s jabs, and his right straight as a counter. Unlike Shane Burgos, Kattar has no problems working off the back foot, and the more aggressive a fighter is, the better. This doesn’t mean Ige wasn’t without his moments.

It was clear that the length of Kattar was a problem for Ige. Not only was Kattar the more technically proficient striker, he was able to get his timing down earlier in the fight. To combat some of this, Ige started to stance switch and move back towards the fence. The stance switches weren’t nearly as effective, but when Ige moved back and forced Kattar to come to him, Ige could explode forward and caught Kattar with hooks and punches to the body. These were great, and Ige should have thrown them more often. Kattar’s disciplined head movement and defense saw him either slipping or blocking most of Ige’s strikes to the head, but it did leave his body wide open for straights and hooks. To give you some numbers, Ige threw 150 strikes to the head of Kattar, and only connected on 37 of them. Out of 46 strikes to Kattar’s body, Ige landed 30 of them. Kattar didn’t connect as many body strikes, but when he did, he made them count. Perhaps it was because of his previous headlining experience, but it was clear that Kattar paced himself better and was still fresh during the fourth and fifth rounds. It probably also helped that those uppercuts to the body and leg kicks cut the gas tank and mobility of Ige.

Even though this fight didn’t give Ige the validation that he belongs in the short list of title contenders, it did give him a good idea of the improvements he needs to make before challenging for the belt. For Kattar, it was impressive seeing the subtle changes he made to his overall game. Since making his UFC debut back in 2017, Kattar has fought 8 times in the promotion, racking up six wins with two losses (including this event). In fights against Renato Moicano and Zabit, he’s shown some weaknesses that are typical of jab-heavy strikers. Moicano was able to time a lot of Kattar’s jabs and kicked his lead leg while moving his head out of the center line, and whenever Kattar’s jabs got lazy he slipped them and returned fire with a straight right. Zabit used volume striking also mixed with low kicks and constant movement to overwhelm Kattar early on, and Kattar didn’t get going until the third and final round.

Since those losses, Kattar has added more variety to his striking arsenal. Loading up with feints, withdrawing his lead leg, attacking with front kicks, and timing the low kick to throw his own are all signs of improvements in Kattar’s overall game. His takedown defense is always solid, and when Zabit got him to the ground he was able to pop back up. All these improvements are signs that he is definitely ready for someone in the top five, but unfortunately most of them are booked up at the moment. If Brian Ortega doesn’t get his match-up against Chan Sung Jung, that could be an intriguing fight and good stylistic clash. For Ige, the loss does set him back, but he could find himself in another exciting fight if he gets matched up against Shane Burgos, who’s also coming off a loss. If Burgos isn’t available, Sodiq Yusuff is making quite a name for himself and he’s a fellow veteran of Dana White’s Contender Series. It could make for a good fight and can serve as a litmus test for both fighters in whether they belong in the top ten.

Featherweights don’t often get a chance to headline fight cards, but with match-ups like Emmett vs Burgos and Kattar vs Ige, it’s clear that the UFC should continue this sooner than later.