Georgian-born Giga Chikadze made his way to the U.S. with aspirations to follow his dream of becoming a UFC fighter. Before transitioning into MMA, Chikadze put in work kickboxing for the GLORY promotion, making it all the way to the into the promotion’s rankings, and ultimately going 6-3-0 (3 KO).
After his departure from the standup-only league, Giga had an opportunity to enter the UFC by way of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series in June of 2018. Despite showcasing a plethora of striking attacks and getting ahead on the scorecards, Chikadze got caught in a rear-naked choke by Austin Springer—with less than a minute remaining in the third round.