Khamzat Chimaev vs Tyron Woodley - A Dream Supermatch

It’s one of the most intriguing main event matchups both historically and currently. Tyron Woodley represents established greatness, known for taking the heads of some of the biggest names in combat sports with his wrestling vs Khamzat Chimaev. Currently the scariest man on the mat or in the cage. It’s a legacy matchup in the RAF MOSCOW Main Event!

Both men know their way around the mat and use it to utilize their strengths differently. Tyron Woodley vs Khamzat Chimaev is guaranteed to be an intriguing, physical chess match that threatens Performance of the Night for one of the men. It’s the MMA wrestler who never wrestled vs the wrestler who never stopped being one.

Woodley and Chimaev have both used their wrestling to set up their striking to reach the highest level of the sport of MMA. Same foundation, same formula, different ingredients.

Woodley went from Big 12 champ and two-time All-American to winning his first MMA by finish by design. If you weren't a believer in his formula in his first fight, he wouldn’t even see the judges scorecards until his sixth professional fight and wouldn’t lose until his eleventh.

His explosive wrestling style made takedowns from a distance feel like an automatic loss and his striking made close-range affairs feel even more lethal.

You were truly picking your poison with Woodley and his MMA career that saw his hoist UFC gold and take out your favorite fighters’ favorite fighters over and over again was set up on the wrestling mat.

Chimaev operates the same but differently. He’s cartoonishly strong and lanky. He closes the distance in the blink of an eye, once he grabs you, you’re not going anywhere. He truly is a combat athlete like we’ve never seen before.

Years of Dagestani wrestling has turned Chimaev into a man so effective on the mat that he has simply decided he’s too violent for it and opted for a career in the cage.

He’s a man that simply gives his opponents no options. He will be wrapping you up and there’s not a lot that can be done to stop it other than try to survive a shootout.

Woodley made a career out of letting the opponent choose how they’d like to lose. Chimaev suffocates and brutalizes. Neither one would be where they are without the wrestling mat and we now get to watch them square off in their original home.

For Woodley to defeat Chimaev he will need to make it his kind of match. Chimaev is at his most dangerous when opponents wait for to storm to try and weather it. If you let Chimaev come to you, it’s already too late, especially in short rounds.

Keep the hips back, fight hands, make Chimaev retreat after failed attacks and kill him with fundamentals.

Woodley is at a strength disadvantage for one of the first times in his career and that means to be most effective he will need to wrestle as though he’s the inexperienced man and cash in on the mat-IQ advantage he likely possesses.

For Chimaev he will need to do exactly what he has always done, keep Woodley thinking defense instead of “next move” and moving backwards. If Chimaev keeps Woodley moving straight back instead of circling or attacking, it will be a long, frustrating night for the former Mizzou Tiger.

“Borz” can also cash in on one of the most impressive re-attacks in the business. His strongest weapon outside of his strength is his re-attacks. If Woodley stuffs a blast double, watch for Chimaev to effortlessly transition into a single-leg. He goes from “finding angles” to stalking his prey when he has opponents defending a third and fourth takedown.

Both men have reached the highest peaks in mixed martial arts and in their own, separate ways, wrestling. Only one man, though, can become the one with their hand raised in the center of the RAF mat on September 5.

Catch Khamzat Chimaev vs Tyron Woodley LIVE Saturday, September 5!