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Picks · Head-to-head ·

Abubakar Vagaev vs Jacob Malkoun

Middleweight · 3 rounds · Volkanovski vs Evloev
UFC 1-0 · Pro 25-4
Red corner
VS
UFC 6-3 · Pro 10-3
Blue corner

The prediction

Our pick, its confidence, the method read and the time we published it are on the bout’s own page — the one URL that carries the prediction before the fight and the graded result after it.

Abubakar Vagaev vs Jacob Malkoun prediction →

Tale of the tape

Abubakar Vagaev vs Jacob Malkoun — the facts, side by side. ▲ marks the reach edge.

UFC 1-0UFC recordUFC 6-3
25-4Pro record10-3
—NicknameMamba
5' 11"Height5' 9"
73"Reach73"
OrthodoxStanceOrthodox
33Age31
170 lbs.Weight185 lbs.
RussiaNationalityAustralia
—Born inSydney, Australia
—Fights out ofSydney, New South Wales, Australia
Grozny, ChechnyaHometown (per Sherdog)—
Fight Club AkhmatCampPMA Super Martial Arts
Vitals and record from public UFC statistics; nickname, nationality and camp from the public fighter register. Where a fighter was born and where they fight out of come from their Wikipedia entry; where we hold neither, the hometown shown is Sherdog’s. The UFC record is counted from the official results themselves.

FightIQ Metrics

Our read — not official stats. Six 0–100 scores, each a percentile rank against the fighter’s own weight class (the full roster where a division is too thin to rank in). The better score on each row is highlighted in that fighter's corner colour.

Abubakar VagaevJacob Malkoun
26
Striking
84
80
Defence
71
70
Grappling / TD
64
45 limited sample
Cardio
62
63 limited sample
Chin
70
57
Fight IQ
70
Our read — derived, not official stats. Ranked within weight class.

Strike zones

Strike zones

Where they go — head to head

Career UFC significant strikes by target zone. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Abubakar Vagaev1 UFC fights · 27 landed

Limited sample
59.3%
HEAD
92.0%
25.9%
BODY
7.1%
14.8%
LEGS
0.9%

Jacob Malkoun9 UFC fights · 424 landed

Significant strikes only, as recorded by UFCStats, across the fighter's whole UFC career. Shares are raw counts — nothing here is modelled or smoothed. Accuracy is landed ÷ attempted and comes from the per-round tape, which covers slightly fewer fights than the totals do. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average.

Stat-by-stat

Abubakar Vagaev (left) vs Jacob Malkoun (right) — career striking & grappling rates. The fighter ahead on each row is highlighted in their corner colour.

Strikes landed / min
1.8
vs
4.23
Striking accuracy
38%
vs
56%
Strikes absorbed / min
2.2
vs
2.33
Striking defence
60%
vs
55%
Takedowns / 15 min
4
vs
5.39
Takedown accuracy
40%
vs
42%
Takedown defence
71%
vs
55%
Sub attempts / 15 min
0
vs
0.8
Career averages from public UFC statistics. On “strikes absorbed / min”, fewer is better.

Live market

The market line next to the live prediction-market price — information only, not a bet call.

Sportsbook line
Abubakar Vagaev-170
Jacob Malkoun+146
Live · Polymarket
Abubakar Vagaev62% · -160
Jacob Malkoun38% · +160
as of 2026-10-20T10:51:02Z · $3,349 liquidity. The implied chance is the market's number, not ours.

Go deeper

Want to compare two other fighters? Build your own head-to-head gives FightIQ’s hypothetical read on any two eligible fighters, with the tale of the tape and the stats side by side — labelled as a thought experiment and never graded. Our graded prediction is published only on a booked bout, timestamped before the cage door closes. For two ranked fighters who have never met, see the fantasy matchups.
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