[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfkBghODmps&w=560&h=315]
Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. Two action Ultimate Fighting Championship light
heavyweights won’t disappoint when they are locked in the cage in
March. In a past episode of Michael
Bisping’s podcast “Believe You Me”
on Jan. 14, Paul Craig
(15-4-1) hinted that his next opponent would be Nikita
Krylov (26-8). On Friday, the promotion revealed
that the fight had been made official, with the two throwing down
at
UFC Fight Night 204 inside London’s O2 Arena on March 19. In
their combined 55-fight careers, Krylov and Craig have only gone
the distance four times.
Krylov has alternated wins and losses in his last six, with an
inconsistent return to the UFC in his last five outings that has
seen him win against Ovince St.
Preux and Johnny
Walker. Those victories are interspersed by setbacks to
Jan
Blachowicz, Glover
Teixeira and Magomed
Ankalaev, with the latter coming in February 2021. The man
formerly known as “Al Capone” left the promotion of his own accord
in 2016, choosing to go back to his home country of the Ukraine and
compete there and Russia to rack up four wins before returning to
the Octagon. “The Miner” posts a career finish rate of 96% as a
pro.
Not to be outdone by his opponent, “Bearjew” Craig celebrates a
100% stoppage rate in a career that began in 2013. Craig has not
suffered a defeat since getting knocked out by Alonzo
Menifield in 2019, with four wins and a draw on his way up the
rankings. While he fought to that draw with Mauricio Rua
in 2019, he rematched “Shogun” in 2020 and forced him to tap to
strikes. The Scottish fighter last competed in June 2021, where he
notched an unusual win over Jamahal
Hill after dislocating Hill’s arm in an armbar, only to have to
finish the fight with strikes due to referee Al Guinee’s
nonintervention.
Krylov and Craig will come to blows on a stacked card in the
promotion’s first trip to London since UFC Fight Night 147 in 2019.
The O2 Arena will play host to UFC Fight Night 204, which draws
Alexander
Volkov vs. Tom
Aspinall as its heavyweight main event. Other key tilts on the
card include a featherweight scrap between Dan Hooker
and Arnold
Allen, as well as a bantamweight battle pitting Jack Shore
against Timur
Valiev.
