UFC heavyweight’s strongest striker and strongest wrestler face off. Also, Korean-American fighter Brad Tavares (35, USA) is about to compete.
The UFC Fight Night: Pavlovic vs Blaze will be held on the 23rd (Korean time) at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
The main event is a showdown between Curtis Blaze (32, USA), the strongest heavyweight wrestler, and Sergei Pavlovic (30, Russia), the strongest heavyweight striker.
The Blaze lives up to his reputation with a total of 62 takedowns and a top position total of 1 hour 6 minutes. This is the dominant record in 스포츠토토UFC heavyweight history. A former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NJCAA) champion, her main weapon is the double leg takedown.
Pavlovic, on the other hand, has a reputation for striking. He’s a hitting monster who lands 8.07 blows per minute and is racking up 6.67 knockdowns per 15 minutes. He is a fighter who hits the most in UFC heavyweight history and is heavy with every single shot. In particular, he ended his last five fights with first-round KO (TKO) wins by punches.
Pavlovic’s weaknesses are wrestling and ground defense. In his UFC debut in 2018, he suffered a takedown from Alistair Overeem (42, Netherlands) and then lost by TKO after being hit by a pounding.
Pavlovic’s base is Greco-Roman wrestling, and he has been practicing wrestling for 12 years since he was 5 years old. Pavlovic believes that his struggles and defeat in wrestling in his UFC debut was just the octagonal soreness experienced by rookies.
Really he needs to prove that it may have been because of octagonal dystrophy. It’s how well Pavlovic blocks Blaze’s takedowns that matters.
“My wrestling is a big problem for other fighters,” said Blaze. If you don’t think so, it means you don’t understand MMA. The ability to drag me to the ground whenever I want puts a lot of mental pressure on my opponent.”
“We will fight soon,” Pavlovic said. So we’ll see soon whether he can take me down or not.”
The winner of this match is likely to be the next UFC heavyweight title challenger between Stipe Miocic (40, USA) and champion John Jones (35, USA). Pavlovic and Blaze are No. 3 and No. 4 respectively in the heavyweight division, Pavlovic is on a 5-fight win streak and Blaze is on a 3-fight win streak. Qualifications are enough for the winner.
The Blaze revealed their ambition for a title shot. He said, “If I win this time, I will wait. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is. Whether it’s Jones, Miocic, or Brock Lesnar, I’ll wait.”
On the other hand, Pavlovic said, “I don’t want to go too far ahead. I will focus only on the game given in front of me now.”
Meanwhile, in the co-main event, Korean-American fighter Brad Tavares (35, USA) clashes with Bruno Silva (33, Brazil) in the middleweight division. Brad Tavares is known as a descendant of Koreans who migrated to Hawaii en masse in the early 20th century.
In his last interview, “Please don’t hate me too much. I like Korean food,” he said to Korean fans.