Kyle Daukaus is a kickboxing coach turned submission specialist, even he thinks it’s weird
Kyle Daukaus is tired of being told he needs to hit harder.
Although the UFC middleweight teaches kickboxing at Martinez BJJ in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he is still missing a knockout on his professional record. The jiu-jitsu blackbelt still continues to show his versatile ground game with eight of his 10 victories coming by submission.
“It’s just weird, I teach kickboxing but all of my wins are by submission and all my fights go to the ground and I am dominant on the ground. ’ Kyle said.
“I’ll even take a TKO win from the ground. If I can just punch somebody out on the ground if they are covering up, that’s fine with me.”
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Kyle Daukaus can teach a thing or two
Kyle is not the only Daukaus on the UFC roster as his older brother Chris Daukaus is unbeaten in the promotion’s heavyweight division. Besides sharing the same last name and being on the UFC roster, the pairs’ records tell entirely different stories.
Chris received his blackbelt the same day as his brother, but is considered a striker inside the cage with nine of his 10 wins coming by TKO/knockout.
On paper, Chris holds higher accolades on the feet. According to Kyle, his older brother is more likely to come to him for striking advice than he is to ask Chris for tips on the feet.
“Everybody at the gym talks about my striking, how good it is,” Kyle said. “He [Chris] always comes to me and is like, ‘What do you think about this? How about this?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know.’”
Daukaus family is making an impact
Chris is quickly climbing up the rankings after back-to-back first-round knockouts against Parker Porter and Rodrigo Nascimento. Less than six months into his UFC career, Chris is set to take on the No.10 ranked heavyweight Aleksei Oleinik at UFC Fight Night 185 on Feb. 20.
Kyle and Chris are close, even meeting every Sunday for family dinner. This still is not enough to keep them from brotherly banter.
Although Kyle earned his UFC contract less than two months earlier than his brother, the 27-year-old is missing a finish inside the octagon. Kyle made his promotional debut on 10-days notice, losing by unanimous decision to Brendan Allen at UFC on ESPN 12.
Chris still managed to pick up two octagon wins before Kyle won his first. Kyle closed out 2020 by defeating Dustin Stoltzfus at UFC 255 this past November.
His first UFC win came after visualizing it for so long. Even so, Kyle was more excited to see his brother get his hand raised twice.
“I get excited, I’m happy because I know the hard work he puts in and the hard work we put in together,” Kyle said. “It’s sad to say, but I’m never really happy about my performances, I’m never really excited and I don’t like to freak out. I show very little emotion after my wins.”
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Seeking a first
Kyle earns another chance to capture his first knockout win on the UFC’s April 10 card. He originally expected to take a late-notice fight, but after things fell through with his opponent, the same bout was postponed till a later date.
Kyle’s next opponent is still yet to be officially announced.
Either way, Daukaus begins fight camp on Monday, Jan. 25 and is also scheduled to corner his brother in February. Regardless of Chris’ result against Oleinik, Kyle expects a knockout win of his own will come soon enough.
“I’m not going to try and force it,” Daukaus said. “My main goal is to win every single minute of every single round, as long as I’m doing that the finish is going to come regardless if it is a knockout or a submission or a decision.”
To see the full interview of Kyle Daukaus with MyMMANews, click on the video above.
