Dragan Hozdic

Fighter profile of Dragan Hozdic by

Dragan Hozdic. This man is recognized around the world as the greatest grappler in the game today! The famous red belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practices with the elite coaches at Hells Academy. Coaches like, Micael Galvao, father to the Galvao brothers is a three time grappling champion who earned his black belt at just 22 years old, Judo Gene Lebell, a traveller of the world and practitioner of the great sport of Judo climbing the highest levels of the sport, and of course, Antonio Nogueira the former Pride and UFC star beloved by thousands. Dragan has an incredible assortment of teammates as well with the likes of Leandro Lo, a fellow red belt at just 31 years old and expected to become the next big thing in CWC, Ares Galvao brother to Micael Galvao and at just 20 years old is a blackbelt in BJJ, and Takeya Aoki, the brilliant 38 year old red belt who continues competing to this day. 

Despite his current number one status Dragan Hozdic actually did start his career from the pinnacle of the grappling world as he was a former Abu Dabi champ before he engaged in his first mma bout but he did not always train at the world famous Hell Academy. Little is known of the early life of the Serbian CatchWeight Champion so we will start from the beginning of his professional career. 

Dragan Hozdic made his mixed martial arts debut under the manager Soyster Eighty Nine, a manager with great prestige who has been inactive since this past April. Soyster set the young Dragan out to showcase his natural grappling skill set in a MMA promotion in July 2017. Dragan entered the cage against a young man who seemed at the time well rounded, Dragan took the fight looking to utilize the skills he was gifted with, he caught his opponent with a vicious head kick that saw him floundering to survive. He immediately took the guy back to the ground and forced him to tap out via triangle.  

Dragan would move forward with mma and find himself situated with three knockout losses in a row. Soyster would eventually cut Dragan from his team and let him move on with his career. He sought out to find a new manager and did so under Manager Mark Harrington, and despite his submission victory in their one fight together, Harrington did not enjoy how easily Dragon's opponent improved his position and so cut him from his team as well. Dragan was finding himself in a real dark place when he found a new manager in Slobo Dragovic. Slobo was a fellow Serbian who actually encouraged Dragan to change his name to Dragan Hozdic as before all of his fights and records were under the name Nakamura. Slobo had told him that if he really wanted to make it big, he would have to start with a name that would strike fear in his opponents eyes, and Dragan would be that name. Taking the name and moving into their first fight together saw Hozdic submit Lee Van Cleef and later Jax Brown. But Slobo and Dragan had a rocky relationship and the three losses Dragan suffered were too much for Slobo so they parted ways. 

Between February and March of 2020, Dragan Hozdic found himself in Las Vegas watching some local QFC fights. At that event, he ran into none other than ChuckW94 the former owner of Synchronicity and now Catchweight Wrestling Championship. Dragan had a few moments to connect with him and whatever was shared in their brief moments together convinced Chuck to take a chance on him. A couple weeks after penning their contract together, Chuck signed Dragan and allowed him to complete his contract under him in WCKD, a New York company no longer in existence. Dragan would lose that bout and feared that Chuck would immediately cut him as well. Of course as we know it, that is not what happened. “Your gifts lie in the ground game Dragan. And so it is with the ground game we shall make you a star!” Chuck decided. 

A short while later, Dragan signed on to fight for CACC against Dominguez. The match saw Dragan get completely obliterated, failing to secure any lasting transitions. Dragan and Chuck had decided that for him to really live to his fullest potential, he had to begin training with others who were on the same trajectory. Bringing him into Hells Balls, Dragan rapidly improved before going on a stunning four fight winning streak. After his TWGC loss, the CACC rising superstar was soon given a title shot against the champion Harry Hirsch. 

Harry Hirsch a black belt in BJJ was looking on top of the mountain prior to his bout with Dragan. The two squared off and Hirsch was stuffed after going for a takedown on Hozdic. He slowly got back to his feet and could see there was a fire in Dragans eyes, everyone could see that fire. It was a fire of desire to be the best and to do that, he was to take the belt. For the first few minutes of the bout, the scoring was even. It wasn't until the fourth minute where there started to be a clear difference in skill where Dragan started racking up points. By the end of the bout the score was 29-6. Dragan was the new CACC Heavyweight Champion. 

The celebration would continue as Dragan would defend this title a successful 12 times after winning it. In his third title defense, his opponent was crushed to a 14-4 defeat. In his fourth title defense, Hozdic defeated Nielson 15-0. It wasn't until his fifth title defense that we saw Hozdic face his toughest challenger in Tormenta. 

Tormenta immediately got the takedown from clinch and went up to two points. Being a muscular and still extremely talented grappler, fans were wondering from the beginning if this was the end of the title run for Dragan. Tormenta followed his point gain as he passed guard and scored an additional three points. The soore was now 5-0 for Tormenta. Tormenta then began to focus on just controlling Dragon which a lot of critics say began the reason why Dragan would bounce back. Dragan had swept Tormenta and the crowd erupted! The two points from Dragan off the sweep would welcome an additional three points when Dragan passed Tormentas guard. Dragan successfully transitioned until finally he took the back of Tormenta, the score became 14-5. Holding the back of Tormenta fans were anxiously awaiting the rear naked choke but suddenly Tormenta turned towards Hozdic and gained 2 points. At the thirteenth minute Tormenta passed Dragans guard yet again and now the score was at 14-10. Fans were screaming and the place was erupting. The two grapplers were exhausted but Tormenta kept pushing onward, Tormenta once again passed Dragans guard leaving the score at 14-13 for Dragan. The last minute of the fight the announcer was for whatever reason booing. The fans were chanting Dragans name and in a moment of sheer brilliance Tormenta went for a surprising cartwheel to get into mount, it failed as Dragan successfully blocked the transition. The match ended and Hozdic was declared the Champion once again. 

Dragan had other tough matches as well and would go on to showcase why he truly is the best grappler in the world. One of the other better matches of his grappling career was against Morgan. The fight was razor thin until the last two moments were Dragan picked up the pace and focused on rapid transitions, it was an equivalent of swinging for the fences. Dragan scored a quick five points after Morgan had taken his back. When his back was against a wall, quite literally, he showed why he is the best in the world. 

Despite never having won the TWGC title, Hozdic has come close many times. In his most recent outing he competed in the semi finals against Jamaica Jones. The fight was remarkably close and it mostly came down to Jones being so aggressive, constantly working for those submissions that saw him escape on a 10-8 victory over Hozdic. Grappling enthusiasts truly hope to see this one played back. Shortly after this loss, Hozdic went on to win in a dominating fashion against Bill Bright defending his title and focusing on being absolutely vicious on the mat. 

Dragan is now entered into the Las Vegas TWGC where he is expected to compete alongside his training partner Leandro Lo and opponents he has already defeated in Maxim Bok, Sven Nielson, and Tyron Sparxx. A few others are Conald Peterson, the dark horse in the competition in Cedric Simard and Steel Grappler. Personally, I think if Dragan gets matched up against his gym mate and sparring partner that will be his toughest test. Will this be the year Dragan finally lays claim to the TWGC and prove all the haters wrong once and for all or will he lose another narrow decision? The TWGC is yet to be announced when it begins but you better believe fight fans around the world will be glued to their TV once it does. 

You can catch all of Dragans past performances on CWC and subscribe to his buzz for all immediate news!

If you enjoyed this career writeup, check out the career write up on Hiro from last weeks Tycoon Times, and be sure to check out our next write up on William Spud coming soon!

Article views: 37
» Donate to this author