Fighter to Watch at UFC 272: Mariya Agapova
Young flyweight from Kazakhstan has already flashed potential inside the Octagon. Now she looks to shine against rival Maryan Moroz.
Name: Mariya Agapova
Nickname: Demonslayer
Record: 10-2 overall, 2-1 UFC
Division: Flyweight
Team: ATT Sunrise
Opponent: Maryna Moroz (10-3 overall, 5-3 UFC)
Mariya Agapova’s brashness stood out right away.
Heading into her fight against Tracy Cortez on Dana White’s Contender Series (DWCS), the 22-year-old earned comparisons to Joanna Jedrzejczyk, the former strawweight champion from Poland who similarly burst onto the scene sure of her greatness and told reporters they didn’t need to learn how to pronounce her last name properly because they could just call her “Joanna Champion.”
Agapova lost that fight to Cortez, but you could see she had something — a 22-year-old with good movement, long limbs, sound boxing, with clear moxie and the kind of ineffable “something” that just makes a prospect stand out every once in a while. You just knew she would be back in the Octagon at some point, especially because she quickly aligned herself with American Top Team, where she could train with and learn from Jedrzejczyk and the host of elite coaches and fighters assembled at the South Florida outpost.
Six weeks after that loss to Cortez, Agapova made her Invicta FC debut, submitting Alexa Connors in the opening round. A month later, she registered a first-round stoppage win against Marilia Santos. She hasn’t fought on the regional scene since.
#####
Agapova looked like a million bucks in her debut against Hannah Cifers, taking the fight to the steely, but limited veteran who had lost to Mackenzie Dern three weeks earlier at strawweight. It was a showcase fight and Agapova made the absolute most of it, which is a big part of why she was a colossal favourite in her matchup with Shana Dobson a little over two months later.
The other piece of it was that Dobson was on a three-fight losing streak and six months removed from getting knocked out in 40 seconds by Priscila Cachoeira. She was an inexperienced fighter on a three-fight slide, and everyone expected Agapova to roll.
She came out sprinting for the first two minutes, emptying the tank as she tried to get Dobson out of there in a hurry. You could see the offensive talent — kicks to different levels, body work, aggression and pressure — but she was all gas, no brakes. Even though she took the back late in the round, looking to secure a fight-ending choke, Agapova couldn’t find a finish, and when the round ended, you could tell she was spent.
Agapova put Dobson on the deck to start the second, but a minute in, the TUF alum hit a reversal and started raining down heavy ground-and-pound as soon as she hit top position. Agapova was dead to rights, the fight was stopped, and the mass exodus from the Agapova bandwagon began.
She wouldn’t fight again for over a year.
In that time, she parted ways with American Top Team and started working exclusively with Roger Krahl at ATT Sunrise, and one of her former teammates, Marina Moroz, gave a lengthy interview calling her “a junkie” and making numerous inflammatory claims about the young UFC talent. Agapova’s manager, Alex Davis, refuted Moroz’s claims that she was a junkie, acknowledging his client dealt with some challenges after moving to the United States from her native Kazakhstan, but that those had been dealt with and she was in a much better place.
When she did finally return last October, Agapova looked outstanding.
Paired off with Sabina Mazo, the 24-year-old was patient and technical, using feints and low kicks early to set up her clean boxing. She floated on the outside, and when she stepped in, she connected with force. She had Mazo’s nose leaking less than 90 seconds into the contest and started mixing in hard shots to the body for good measure.
For the first two rounds, she worked methodically, picking apart Mazo and mixing up her attacks, showcasing the full arsenal. As great as her striking was throughout, her patience was the piece that stood out the most, as it was the one thing that was missing earlier in her career. Nothing was hurried and she didn’t press in those moments where she had Mazo stung, and there were more than a couple.
Then in the third, she created a finishing opportunity — and yes, I chose the word “created” purposefully.
In her previous fights, Agapova was fishing for finishing opportunities — everything was thrown in an attempt to get her opponent out of there, and she was always searching. Against Mazo, she let the fight come to her, let “The Colombian Queen” walk into a beautiful two-punch combination — a lead left hook to the body, followed by a clubbing overhand right to the dome — that sent her to the canvas.
Agapova had the fight-ending choke sunk in before she had fully taken Mazo’s back, and the former LFA champ tapped instantly. It was a dynamic performance that had people lining up to see if they could get their old seat on the bandwagon back.
After the contest, Agapova called for a fight with Moroz, eager to settle their differences inside the Octagon, and this weekend, she gets her wish.
#####
Agapova is another example of why I preach patience when it comes to judging these competitors and making sweeping, declarative statements about their skills, their talents, and their futures.
How many of us had things fully figured out at 25?
How many of us reached the pinnacle of our chosen profession and relocated to an entirely different country in order to pursue said profession?
How many of us have travelled a straight line to the top of our profession?
So why do we expect it from someone like Agapova?
And just in case you want to do the whole, “That’s easy to say now after she had a great performance last time out” thing, may I present the following:
Exhibit A, from Fighters to Watch 2021, Part I: Strawweights & Flyweights: “I was super-high on Agapova heading into that fight and remain bullish on her future prospects — she shown plenty of upside since her Contender Series appearance, and feels like a fighter who needed a loss like that to get things dialled in.”
Exhibit B, from the Tuesday column ahead of her return: “Mariya Agapova still intrigues me, even though she crashed and burned last time out. Writing off a 24-year-old with obvious upside and tons of swagger following one bad performance feels like a mistake.”
Exhibit C, from One Question for Every Fight: “… right now, Agapova looks like one of those ultra-talented athletes that could go one way or the other — she could figure it all out and become an absolute force or she could be a cautionary tale of wasted potential who is always talked about that ‘someone that could have been someone.’”
Exhibit D, from 10 Things I Like: “… there are plenty of young fighters that have rough early showings and need to train at a couple different spots before they find somewhere they’re comfortable and start building, so why can’t that be the stage Agapova is in right now?”
Yes, I keep receipts.
Agapova is a tremendous prospect, but she’s also still just putting it all together and growing up, as both a human being and an athlete. She doesn’t turn 25 until early April, and yet she still enters this weekend’s contest with a 10-2 record overall and coming off an absolutely fabulous performance against a game, experienced opponent in Mazo.
Saturday’s pairing with Moroz will be interesting because it will be the real test of her patience, as there is an emotional, personal piece to this fight that hasn’t been there in the past.
If she can tuck that away as soon as she steps into the Octagon and leave it there until after the fight, Agapova has all the tools and talents needed to secure a second straight dominant showing and really assert herself as one of the top young fighters on the roster. And if she can’t and this one gets away from her, that’s okay too — she’s 24 years old, and still has tons of room to grow, mature, and develop before we should be making any kind of final assessment about her long-term future as a fighter.
Everything I’ve seen so far from Agapova has me very excited about her return this weekend and her upside going forward.