One of these surging Ultimate Fighting Championship light
heavyweights may be a win away from a crack at gold after this
melee.
On Thursday,
MMA Junkie first broke the news that the
UFC event on Feb. 25 has its marquee attraction. Coming to
blows in the light heavyweight division, Nikita
Krylov (29-9) will throw down with Ryan Spann
(21-7) in a contest that will receive five rounds if necessary. The
specific venue and location have not yet been announced. The fight
has since been confirmed by
other outlets.
Krylov finds himself on his first win streak inside the Octagon
since his five-win stretch from 2014 to 2016. In July, Krylov
flattened former title challenger Alexander
Gustafsson in 67 seconds, and he went on to outwork Volkan
Oezdemir by decision three months later. Before that pair of
wins, Krylov had fallen short to Paul Craig
and Magomed
Ankalaev, losing to the former by the Scot’s vaunted triangle
choke. As a pro, “The Miner” posts a stellar finish rate of 93%,
with his lone two career decision victories occurring in his last
three wins.
Fortis MMA product Spann admitted after his last performance – an
80-second drubbing of Dominick
Reyes – that he had finally started training seriously. That
destruction of Reyes put his own win streak to two, as he had
previously throttled Ion
Cutelaba with a guillotine choke in May. Prior to those
first-round stoppages, the Texan had dropped two of three,
including finish losses to Anthony
Smith and Johnny
Walker. Each of the last five appearances for Spann have
concluded in the first round, win or lose. While not as high as his
opponent’s, “Superman” celebrates his own impressive stoppage rate
of 86%.
The UFC Fight Night card on Feb. 25 does not have a numbered
designation, corresponding to whether it will be airing on the ESPN
networks or ESPN+. It similarly does not yet have an official
location. In addition to the newly announced main event, a few
fights are already on the books: a bantamweight scrap pitting
newcomer Hailey
Cowan against Ailin
Perez, a flyweight contest featuring Ode
Osbourne vs. Denys
Bondar and a 155-pound affair as Jordan
Leavitt takes on Victor
Martinez.