UFC Vegas 71: UFC Apex; Las Vegas
The UFC Heavyweight division is alive and well right now. And with another first round finish for the 30-year old Russian Sergei Pavlovich his sights are locked onto a shot for UFC Gold. The pinpoint and volume strikes were too much for Curtis Blaydes, falling at the 3:08 mark of the opening round.
Right from the opening bell the duo ate each others strikes, which is a dangerous game while fighting Pavlovich. He flash dropped Blaydes, and wobbled him with stinging jabs. “Razor” answered with a calf kick that had zero effect. He then tried a very sloppy takedown that Pavlovich shrugged off.
Then came the beginning of the end. Another left jab, right uppercut, and left crumbled the Chicago native. And hammer strikes finished the job before referee Marc Goddard could swoop in to stop the fight.
Another First Round Finish For The Hungry Russian
Now there really isn’t that much more that Dana White could do with him. He was the backup for Jon Jones heavyweight debut title fight versus Ciryl Gane. And sitting at three-right now in the rankings has him behind Gane and Stipe Miocic. Who is still just rumored to be the next up for the title. But his lack of fights recently, may finally come to bite him in the rear end.
Pavlovich, with his six-straight first-round knockouts, him owning the highest strike rate of over 8.07 per minute should be enough to be enough. Sure, this was his first main event slot. However, the lack of speaking English could take off some of the back-and-forth with Jones.
In name only, Miocic is the better fight. Although Blaydes has become incredibly well rounded, he had no time to go back to his wrestling roots. Thanks to the flurry from the Russian. If you remember back at 205 towards the end, Jones wasn’t as defensively sound as he once was, especially against Dominik Reyes, and Santos. There were thoughts of could his chin handle a strike from Francis Ngannou. But now the question is can it handle the sheer amount coming at him from Pavlovich.
Yes Jones’ in-cage IQ is the best ever. But a great focused fighter with a gameplan can offset that. Who knows right now, but there may be UFC Gold heading to Moscow before Moscow leaves Ukraine. Although, we still don’t know what would happen if Pavlovich was brought into the deep waters. And that right now is the million dollar question.
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