In evidence, you can look at the duel of the same Alex against Kydyrgali Ongarbaev. In both fights, Alex acted almost the same way; he at the expense of a huge arm and fast enough, explosive start knocked down the center position and went under the table, attacking the opponent’s hand with a stretch and pronation. And after the opponent’s wrist was opened, Alex tried to sideways. But it is precisely in the hand and the length of the fingers that the fundamental difference lies between Rustam and Kydyrgali, and as a result, the result of the match as a whole.

Longer anthropometry of the hand allowed the Kazakh, without losing the hand, to go into a defensive position, from which, having waited until Alex's hand got tired or he made a technical error, he successfully counterattacked. Rustam, however, cannot go into a defensive position to keep the wrist at least straight. Firstly, due to the fact that the length of his fingers did not allow him to fully grab Alex’s palm and block pronation, and secondly, when Alex pulled on a diagonal, the attack vector went almost immediately to Rustam’s wrist. While in the fight against Kydyrgali, Alex began to load the opponent’s wrist only after he had already used most of the length of the pad.

The next factor, which also depends on anthropometry, was precisely Alex's technical error. After all, side attack and triceps attack, which is using to complete the fight after the toproll starting movement, only works if you fully control the opponent’s hand by knocking out his hand and opening his fingers. In the case against those who fight in a hook, the pressure lever decreases, and the opponent at this time manages to tighten the wrist, after which it is already impossible to fully attack on toproll, as at the start. And this is exactly what we saw in Alex's struggle. What was a technical mistake in the fight against Kydyrgali worked perfectly against Rustam Babayev.

Also, the factor of moral preparation and motivation cannot be denied. After all, Rustam Babayev, in fact, did not lose anything from losing. And the victory gave him only a not very big increase in prize money. As soon as the second weight category of Top 8 was announced, Rustam was immediately declared to participate in it. At the same time, victory was critically important for Alex Kurdecha. In fact, for Alex, his participation in the Top 8 of 2020 was at stake, and he could not afford to lose.

It was an interesting and important match for us. He pointed to the real strength of Alex, and next year we will be happy to watch this athlete without calling him an unequivocal underdog. Despite the dry score, the fight was very spectacular and Rustam showed an excellent fight, right up to the very last round. And even after losing, anyway, when moving to the Top 8 in 95 kg, he will be one of the favorites of this category.