Giga Chikadze believes he’s the most unique striker in MMA even more so than UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya.
Chikadze has been making waves in the UFC featherweight division. He has had three straight “Performance of the Night” bonuses. He’s fresh off the biggest win of his pro MMA career, stopping Edson Barboza via third-round TKO.
During a chat with MMAFighting‘s Damon Martin, Chikadze expressed his belief that not even Adesanya is on his level when it comes to striking.
“I believe I’m the best striker in the whole martial arts sport right now, what I’ve done in all different sports: I came from the karate background and became the multiple-time national champion, European champion, world champion twice. Then, I moved from this sport. I moved from this sport into kickboxing. And I became two-time world champion, two-time European champion. And I’m talking about highest level of the sport. I was fighting (in) GLORY. I was beating the people right there. Everybody was running from me in the organization of GLORY Kickboxing. And now, I’m in the UFC. And everybody is not accepting the fight against me. Everyone wants to say (something) and don’t fight me, ignore me. Definitely. Who’s the better striker right now in the whole game?
“Israel Adesanya is a very good-style fighter in striking. There are a couple more. But whatever I’ve done on résumé with the numbers, there is nobody like me.”
Chikadze has amassed a pro MMA record of 14-2 with nine of those victories coming by way of KO or TKO. He’s riding a nine-fight winning streak. Chikadze is 7-0 under the UFC banner.
The hard work of Chikadze is paying off. He now finds himself at the number eight spot on the official UFC featherweight rankings. With that said, he remains baffled that Yair Rodriguez is ahead of him.
