UFC 278 heavyweight Alexander Romanov is thinking about a future title shot, but he’s going about it in a rational and realistic manner.
SALT LAKE CITY – [autotag]Alexander Romanov[/autotag] is thinking about a future title shot, but he’s going about it in a rational and realistic manner.
The unbeaten Romanov has 15 of his 16 wins by stoppage and is off to a perfect 5-0 start in the UFC against increasingly tough competition, including back-to-back finishes of Jared Vanderaa and Chase Sherman.
Saturday at UFC 278, Romanov (16-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) takes on Marcin Tybura (22-7 MMA, 9-6 UFC) at heavyweight to close out the preliminary card at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City. It’s the kind of fight that can propel him into the upper echelon of the division.
“This is a very big opportunity to show I can fight in the top 10,” Romanov said at Wednesday’s UFC 278 media day. “I have respect for him because he’s a very tough fighter. He has good fights, and his skills on the ground and standing are interesting. I think we’ll (have) a good fight.”
But despite his quick rise in the division with a chance to have six UFC heavyweight wins in less than two years – so far, all five of his bouts in the promotion have been in front of no fans at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas – Romanov isn’t putting the cart before the proverbial horse.
“For sure, I’m coming here for the title,” he said. “I think the guys who don’t think about the title don’t have a future in this division. (But) I’m a professional – I think I need to win three or four more fights, and then I’ll try to get a title shot.
“I think I need to make a very spectacular fight – make some beautiful takedowns, make a KO or a submission.”
Check out Romanov’s full media day interview in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 278.
Roque Martinez is the newest member of the UFC roster – and he waste no time in making his debut.
A heavyweight matchup is a late addition to the UFC on ESPN+ 35 lineup.
Former RIZIN fighter [autotag]Roque Martinez[/autotag] has signed with the UFC and will take on Romania’s [autotag]Alexander Romanov[/autotag] at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday.
MMA Junkie confirmed the booking with a person with knowledge of the situation after the fight appeared on the UFC’s official stats page.
Romanov (11-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) was supposed to compete last Saturday at UFC on ESPN+ 34. However, hours before the event’s scheduled start time, Romanov’s fight was pulled from the lineup as a result of his opponent Marcos Rogerio de Lima testing positive for COVID-19.
The cancellation was the third in as many bookings Romanov has faced since signing with the promotion in early 2019.
As for the 34-year-old Martinez (15-5-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC), the Guam-born big man has won three of his most recent four outings. In his five RIZIN outings, Martinez won three fights – only losing to Mirko Crop Cop and Jake Heun.
With the addition, the UFC on ESPN+ 35 lineup includes:
Yet another fight has been removed from Saturday night’s UFC card in Las Vegas.
At UFC on ESPN+ 34, there will be no preliminary card.
Heavyweights [autotag]Marcos Rogerio de Lima[/autotag] and [autotag]Alexander Romanov[/autotag] are the latest fighters to have their bout canceled in the 24 hours leading up to Saturday’s event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Saturday, the UFC announced the news less than 90 minutes before the event’s new start time of 7 p.m. E.T. The card will now proceed with a seven-fight main card and no prelims.
Thiago Moises vs. Jalin Turner was also canceled Saturday due to coronavirus concerns, shortly after Kevin Natividad was removed from his featherweight fight against Brian Kelleher.
The promotion’s announcement statement reads:
“Due to positive COVID-19 test results, the following bouts have been canceled from today’s card: Alexandr Romanov vs Marcos Rogerio De Lima and Thiago Moses vs Jalin Turner.
Additionally, as a precaution, Kevin Natividad has been removed from his bout against Brian Kelleher and will be replaced by Dana White Contender’s Series alum Ray Rodriguez. Rodriguez, who appeared on the show last season, has won 11 of his last 13 bouts.”
Alexander Romanov won’t be fighting at UFC 251 and according to his gym, that’s due to positive COVID-19 tests.
[autotag]Alexander Romanov[/autotag] won’t be fighting at UFC 251 and according to his gym, that’s due to positive COVID-19 tests.
In an Instagram post Thursday, his home gym, Lion Comrat, revealed that Romanov (11-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) and his coaches had tested positive for COVID-19 on July 1. The post also said a second test had come back negative. However, the wording makes it unclear whether the negative test was an antibody test or a second swab test.
Romanov was removed from his UFC 251 fight against [autotag]Marcin Tybura[/autotag] late this past week and was replaced by Maxim Grishin. The reason for his departure from the card was unknown to the public until Thursday.
“Dear friends, we were all looking forward to Alexander Romanov’s debut in UFC, which was to take place this Saturday, July 11, 2020. Unfortunately, he and his team tested POSITIVE for Covid-19 on the 1st of July 2020 and even if the repeated test, done on the 3rd of July 2020 came back NEGATIVE, indicating only the presence of antibodies in one of the coaches’ system, Alexander Romanov has already been removed from the fight card, just as other four other foreign fighters who were going to fight Saturday at UFC 251. Alexander feels great, he trains in isolation and looks forward to his next fight in UFC. We wish him success and good health!”
Romanov joins a handful of other fighters, corners and coaches who have tested positive ahead of UFC “Fight Island” bouts – including Gilbert Burns, Mike Brown, Pedro Munhoz and Marina Rodriguez.
UFC 251 was supposed to be Romanov’s promotional debut after an initial April fight cancellation. Romanov, 29, has finished all 11 of his professional fights inside the distance.
“Fight Island” is real, and now the four cards that will take place there are real, as well.
“Fight Island” is real, and now the four cards that will take place there are real, as well.
UFC president Dana White today announced the complete lineup for the four cards that will take place next month in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. The unique setup has been necessitated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has made it difficult to get international fighters into the U.S. to compete.
“I think this is going to be a really unique experience, not just for the fighters, but for us,” UFC president Dana White said during the announcement. “It’s going to be cool. It’s going to be something different. It’s never been done before, and however long this thing goes on, and however long it’s hard to get people in from other countries, we will have these fights at ‘Fight Island’ – Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.”
First up, it’s UFC 251 on July 11, which features a trio of title fights.
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
Champ [autotag]Kamaru Usman[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Gilbert Burns[/autotag] – for welterweight title
Champ [autotag]Alexander Volkanovski[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Max Holloway[/autotag] – for featherweight title
[autotag]Petr Yan[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Jose Aldo[/autotag] – for vacant bantamweight title
[autotag]Jessica Andrade[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Rose Namajunas[/autotag]
[autotag]Amanda Ribas[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Paige VanZant[/autotag]
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN, ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)
[autotag]Volkan Oezdemir[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Jiri Prochazka[/autotag]
[autotag]Muslim Salikhov[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos[/autotag]
[autotag]Makwan Amirkhani[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Danny Henry[/autotag]
[autotag]Roman Bogatov[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Leonardo Santos[/autotag]
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN, ESPN+, 6:15 p.m. ET)
[autotag]Alexander Romanov[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Marcin Tybura[/autotag]
[autotag]Raulian Paiva[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Zhalgas Zhumagulov[/autotag]
[autotag]Vanessa Melo[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Karol Rosa[/autotag]
[autotag]Martin Day[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Davey Grant[/autotag]
Calvin Kattar and Dan Ige
The promotion then returns on July 15 with an event headlined by featherweight contenders [autotag]Calvin Kattar[/autotag] (21-4 MMA, 5-2 UFC) and [autotag]Dan Ige[/autotag] (14-2 MMA, 6-1 UFC).
The complete lineup includes:
MAIN CARD (10 p.m. ET)
Calvin Kattar vs. Dan Ige
[autotag]Frankie Edgar[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Pedro Munhoz[/autotag]
[autotag]Carla Esparza[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Marina Rodriguez[/autotag]
[autotag]Abdul Razak Alhassan[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Mounir Lazzez[/autotag]
[autotag]Chris Fishgold[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Jared Gordon[/autotag]
PRELIMINARY (7 p.m. ET)
[autotag]Modestas Bukauskas[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Vinicius Moreira[/autotag]
[autotag]Molly McCann[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Taila Santos[/autotag]
[autotag]Lerone Murphy[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Ricardo Ramos[/autotag]
[autotag]John Phillips[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Dusko Todorovic[/autotag]
[autotag]Ryan Benoit[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Tim Elliott[/autotag]
[autotag]Diana Belbita[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Liana Jojua[/autotag]
Joseph Benavidez and Deiveson Figueiredo
Three days later, on July 18, the promotion hosts its third card in eight days, when top flyweight contenders [autotag]Deiveson Figueiredo[/autotag] (18-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) and [autotag]Joseph Benavidez[/autotag] (28-6 MMA, 15-4 UFC) meet for a second time with the vacant UFC flyweight title on the line.
The full card includes:
MAIN CARD (9 p.m. ET)
Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Joseph Benavidez – for vacant flyweight title
[autotag]Kelvin Gastelum[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Jack Hermansson[/autotag]
[autotag]Marc Diakiese[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Rafael Fiziev[/autotag]
[autotag]Luana Carolina[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Ariane Lipski[/autotag]
[autotag]Askar Askarov[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Alexandre Pantoja[/autotag]
PRELIMINARY CARD (6 p.m. ET)
[autotag]Roman Dolidze[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Khadis Ibragimov[/autotag]
[autotag]Grant Dawson[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Nad Narimani[/autotag]
[autotag]Joel Alvarez[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Joe Duffy[/autotag]
[autotag]Montel Jackson[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Brett Johns[/autotag]
[autotag]Aleksander Doskalchuk[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Tagir Ulanbekov[/autotag]
[autotag]Davi Ramos[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Arman Tsarukyan[/autotag]
[autotag]Carlos Felipe[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Serghei Spivac[/autotag]
Darren Till and Robert Whittaker
Finally, the UFC’s run in Abu Dhabi ends on July 25 with a much-anticipated middleweight contest between former champion [autotag]Robert Whittaker[/autotag] (20-5 MMA, 11-3 UFC) and former welterweight title challenger [autotag]Darren Till[/autotag] (18-2-1 MMA, 6-2-1 UFC).
That night’s full lineup includes:
MAIN CARD
Robert Whittaker vs. Darren Till
[autotag]Antonio Rogerio Nogueira[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Mauricio Rua[/autotag]
[autotag]Alex Oliveira[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Peter Sobotta[/autotag]
[autotag]Alexander Gustafsson[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Fabricio Werdum[/autotag]
[autotag]Nicolas Dalby[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Danny Roberts[/autotag]
PRELIMINARY CARD
[autotag]Tom Aspinall[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Jake Collier[/autotag]
[autotag]Raphael Pessoa[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Justin Tafa[/autotag]
[autotag]Movsar Evloev[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Mike Grundy[/autotag]
[autotag]Bethe Correia[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Pannie Kianzad[/autotag]
[autotag]Umar Nurmagomedov[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Nathaniel Wood[/autotag]
[autotag]Ramazan Emeev[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Shavkat Rakhmonov[/autotag]
