When writing up the notes for this fight I was torn with what to call Tahir. I landed on wrestler, but he honestly doesn't shoot that much. But his striking is so bad, there was no way I would call him a striker. From a some surface level tape study, I can understand how you end up with Nascimento.Tahir absolutely hates pressure and Nasimento loves to pressure. But a little deeper into the tape and you'll see that while Tahir doesn't shoot a ton from the outside, he does however grabs legs, body locks and trips in scrambles. The way Nascimento strikes will absolutely leave him open to be taken down with a scramble body lock. So this pick is a little trickier than I originally thought. I am going to pick Nascimento here because I think the striking is lightyears ahead, but I probably stay away from this.

Tahir Abdullayev

Tahir Abdullayev is a strong wrestler who is very light on his toes. While the game plan is straight forward, he doesn't just dive at legs, he takes his time bouncing on the outside, gauging range and looking for an opening. While he isn't desperate to wrestle, he almost should be. The striking is not very and the striking defense is even worse. He is very hittable and doesn't respond well to pressure. Once he gets you on the ground he is immediately transitioning and looking for submissions. He is a pretty one dimensional guy, but will have success against anyone without takedown defense.

Jefferson Nascimento

Jefferson Nascimento is a clean technical striker with fantastic speed and the ability to work both inside and outside of the pocket. He can wrestle as well, but that is definitely a backup plan. Most takedowns are body locks and any submissions are from scrambles. He likes to leap from side to side and throw everything with power. he can overcommit at times and end up in grappling scrambles but he is fast, clean and dangerous everywhere.