It was a long wait for Giga Chikadze to make his return to action but he put on a dominant striking display against Alex Caceres to get back in the win column at UFC Singapore.
Following a loss to Calvin Kattar in last outing 18 months ago, Chikadze needed a little time to shake loose the ring rust but once he found his rhythm, he was constantly beating Caceres to the punch in almost every exchange. By the end of the third round, Chikadze was picking Caceres apart as he secured the victory with all three judges scoring the fight 30-27 in his favor.
“It’s not easy to be without a job for one and a half years when you have a wife and a family,” Chikadze said afterwards. “It was not easy but as you guys can see, I worked on many things, changed my style a little bit. It’s been a long time, I decided the Giga show is back motherf******!”
Well known for his kickboxing skills, Chikadze got off to a bit of a slow start with Caceres actually dictating the pace early, which included a well-timed spinning backfist that nearly caught the Georgian featherweight off guard.
The punch also seemed to wake Chikadze up as he started getting much busier while displaying good accuracy with a number of straight jabs down the middle that were really starting to catch Caceres. While Caceres was still firing back, it was Chikadze doing far more damage with his punches and kicks, especially in the second and third rounds.
Chikadze’s ability to anticipate Caceres’ awkward movement and then throwing strikes on target allowed him to really put together a strong performance by the time all 15 minutes had expired.
Prior to his loss to Kattar back in 2022, Chikadze was putting together an impressive run through the UFC’s featherweight division. Now that he’s back on track, Chikadze wants a spot on the UFC 296 pay-per-view card in December as he seeks to continues the momentum built off his win over Caceres on Saturday.
