UFC Fight Night 177 tournament match
Next Sunday, UFC APEX in Las Vegas (Nevada, USA) will once again host the tournament of the world’s leading promotion without the admission of spectators. And UFC Fight Night 177 is another UFC event hit by COVID-19.
In the preliminary card, the Moldovan heavyweight Romanov will make his debut in the UFC on the fourth attempt, meeting with the same debutant Roque Martinez.
Romanov enters MMA with an 11-0 record (5 wins by KO/TKO, 6 by submission). Since the beginning of the year, he has failed his debut in the UFC three times. First, an entire UFC on ESPN+ 31 tournament was canceled in April, where he was scheduled to fight against Rafael Pessoa. In July at UFC 251, Romanov was unable to fight Marcin Tybura after testing positive for COVID-19. And the fight with Marcos Rogerio de Lima, scheduled for September 5, did not take place, as the Brazilian turned out to be positive for COVID-19.
A native of Guam, Martinez built his fighting career in Japan, where he had his most important fights in RIZIN tournaments. He is remembered for defeating kickboxing legend Jerome Le Banner by submission in 2017, and a year later, Martinez lost to Mirko Filipović due to a cut on his forehead after an elbow strike. Since losing to Cro Cop, Martinez has won three out of four fights.
Prediction for the fight
Martinez prefers to fight on his feet, noticeably inferior in the ground component to the basic freestyle wrestler Romanov. Considering not the best defense of Martins from takedowns, Romanov can decide the outcome of the meeting with one pass to the legs.
If Martinez doesn’t catch the Moldovan fighter with a powerful punch at the start of the fight, then Romanov can do what he does well – finish the opponent in the first round. He has done this 9 times already.
Romanov’s victory by technical knockout in the 1st round
Main card
Michelle Waterson – Angela Hill
Ottman Azaitar – Hama Worthy
Roxanne Modafferi – Andrea Lee
Ed Herman – Mike Rodriguez
Billy Quarantillo – Kyle Nelson
preliminary card
Matt Schnell – Tyson Nam
Julia Avila – Sijara Eubanks
Matt Frevola – Roosevelt Roberts
Bobby Green – Alan Patrick
Alexander Romanov – Roque Martinez
Brian Barberena – Anthony Ivey
Sabina Mazo – Justine Kish
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