Giga Chikadze (-230) vs. Bruce Leeroy (+190)
Giga: DK: $9k | Leeroy: DK:$7.2k
This is a banger little style matchup right here. Giga Chikadze is a world-class kickboxer-turned-MMA fighter and graduated from the Cub Swanson School of Low Riders. Let me take the time to offer you a word of life advice, don’t f**k with dudes rocking a cul de sac fade; don’t fall for the okie doke. Whatever the offense, just apologize and walk away. It’s football season, and you don’t want to miss that shit laid up in a hospital bed like Steve Seagal in Hard to Kill. You’ll wake up with a Moses beard under the watchful eye of an amorphous race more closely resembling extraterrestrials than humans. And Alex Caceres, aka Bruce Leeroy, is a double OG with multiple purple hearts and medals of honor. He’s one of the most slept-on since Rip Van Wink and has quietly won seven of his last eight bouts. At first, I thought, “Giga is gonna smoke Bruce Bruce.” But then I thought, “Don’t do it; don’t you dare sleep on Bruce Leeroy again.” Upon closer inspection, this fight will not only be dope but highly competitive also.
Giga is best known for his special move, the Giga Kick. Nothing will brown your chonies like low/medium heat quicker than the Giga Kick. It’s a round kick out of the Southpaw stance that travels at an upward trajectory. Giga throws it with very little hip rotation, using the knee as a fulcrum, and lands it under the opponent’s arm. It’s the cousin of the liver punch. It travels the same upward path as a traditional liver shot. Most importantly, it’s an instant pant-shitter. You’ll turn into Justine Kish real quick. Who’s Justine Kish? Let’s just say, don’t Google “Justine Kish shits herself.”
Giga is also known for his heathenous aggression, especially in the opening rounds. He comes out NBA Jam on fire, dunking from half-court. He just throws hands and feets in quick two to three-piece combos and lets the chips fall where they may. Chikadze has a boxing/kickboxing hybrid style in which he combines traditional boxing slips/rolls and footwork with European kickboxing combinations and kicking attacks. Like Cub Swanson, Giga carries his hands low and fires from the waist. His punches travel from the lower peripheral and are hard to track, like uppercuts. But overall, Chikadze morphs stances and styles like a lava lamp and leaves very little dead air between engagements.
Major Malfunctions: In his last bout against Calvin Kattar, Giga came out on fire like a Phoenix risen but went out like River Phoenix. After a blistering opening three minutes, Kattar took down Giga and the fight stayed on the mat until the round ended. Giga was never the same after that. It turns out, Giga has excellent kickboxing cardio, but January 1st New Years resolution MMA cardio. Giga gassed and his technique fell apart. His punches grew long and sloppy, and he basically got pieced up for the remaining twenty minutes.
Chikadze is 14-3 for his career with noine TKO/KOs and one submission. His value will be in a finish on the feet while averaging over four SLpM. Although he faded heavy against Kattar, he still managed to land one hundred twenty-eight strikes in a five-rounder. I think the play for Giga is a decision, though. Caceres is 21-13 for his career, and eight L’s came by finish. BUT, big but, seven of the eight L’s came by submission. Bruce is tough to finish on the feet, and if you look at Giga’s fight autobiography, the chapter on grappling is just a bunch of blank pages with money signs, d***s, and “Stussy” drawn all over them like a 90’s textbook.
If you don’t f**k with Bruce Leeroy, I don’t f**k with you. This guy will whoop your ass with a smile on his face like he’s working the drive-thru. People have been sleeping on Bruce Leeroy his entire career. Soup becomes a drowning hazard when people watch Bruce Leeroy because they become narcoleptic. Bruce’s stand-up has a lot of Diaz Brothers in it. I always see shades of Nate in Bruce’s long, whipping arm punches. Like the Diaz Bros, Bruce has a knack for landing at the end of his strikes and relies on touching you when you think you are safely out of his range. His arms just seem to keep extending to... Infinity and Beyond! Bruce Leeroy uses a bladed Karate stance and has nifty side kicks that allow him to manipulate range. Inside the pocket extending combinations is where Bruce struggles. His strikes are too long, and he tends to take most damage when he’s inside the pocket throwing combos.
But the key for Caceres will be his grappling. If this stays a kickboxing match, Giga will win. If it turns into an MMA fight, Caceres will win. On the mat, Bruce is agile, like when you see a spider. He’s a scrambler on the mat with slick back-takes and is more of a sub-threat than a TKO/KO threat. Seven of his eleven career finishes came via submission. Bruce will have to find ways to trap Giga against the cage and close the distance to initiate the clinch. On the feet, Giga is the far more technically superior striker, but that won’t matter if Bruce can relocate the fight.
Giga will be the (-230) favorite, and Bruce Leeroy will be the (+190) live dog. Bring ‘em out! Bring ‘em out! Bust out the Piso Mojado signs. Bruce Leeroy will be raining value like Hurricane Hillary. If he can get to the clinch, grind away some minutes against the cage, and land a takedown here and there, he can win this fight. He can submit Giga. But he will have to survive Giga’s early storm, his savage early blitzes. A Giga TKO/KO will return (+275), and a decision will return (+100). A Bruce Leeroy sub will return (+800), and a decision (+450). I think this is a good opportunity to take a dog. Bruce Leeroy via rear-naked choke, round three. On wax.
Winner: Bruce Leeroy | Method: Rear-Naked Choke Rd.3