A heavyweight clash pitting Sergei
Pavlovich against Jairinzho Rozenstruik is on tap for the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return to Saudi Arabia early
next year.
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Multiple outlets confirmed the booking following an initial report
from MMA Mania. UFC
Saudi Arabia takes place on Feb. 1 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh
and will mark the Las Vegas-based promotion’s second visit to the
Middle Eastern country. The card does not yet have a main
event.
Pavlovich will look to halt the first two-bout losing streak of his
professional tenure. The 32-year-old Russian last appeared at UFC
on ABC 6, where he dropped a unanimous verdict to former training
partner Alexander
Volkov at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That setback
came on the heels of a 69-second knockout loss to Tom
Aspinall in an interim heavyweight title bout at UFC 295 last
November. Prior to that skid, Pavlovich had finished six
consecutive UFC opponents inside of a round.
Rozenstruik will be making his 15th Octagon appearance when he
squares off against Pavlovich. “Bigi Boy” is 2-0 thus far in 2024,
with a fourth-round TKO win over Shamil
Gaziev and a split-decision triumph against Tai Tuivasa
to his credit. Rozenstruik is 9-5 during his promotional tenure and
also owns notable wins over the likes of Junior dos
Santos, Alistair
Overeem and Andre Arlovski.