Gaston Bolanos and Cortavious Romious meet Saturday on the main card of UFC Fight Night 247 at UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Check out this quick breakdown of the matchup from MMA Junkie analyst Dan Tom.
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Gaston Bolanos vs. Cortavious Romious UFC Fight Night 247 preview
Bolanos (7-4 MMA, 1-1 UFC) aims to stay above .500 in his young UFC career. The 32-year-old suffered his first loss in the promotion in his last outing at the beginning of the year, when Marcus McGhee finished him. Bolanos, a Bellator veteran, won his UFC debut against Aaron Phillips last April. … Romious (9-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) makes his debut after a contract-earning unanimous decision win over Michael Imperato on Dana White’s Contender Series in August. It was his second shot on DWCS and he got the job done to enter the promotion. Romious will debut on a two-fight winning streak.
Gaston Bolanos vs. Cortavious Romious UFC Fight Night 247 expert pick, prediction
Getting an impromptu promotion to the main card is a bantamweight bout between Bolanos and Romious.
Romious is a well-rounded fighter with potential, but I was not impressed with his last Contender Series performance despite winning the fight and a UFC contract.
Aside from having a fight that was there for the taking, Romious displayed highly questionable fight IQ en route to ignoring his coaches and corner down the stretch.
Should Romious show suspect decision-making this Saturday, that could spell trouble against a striker the caliber of Bolanos.
The smaller octagon should help Romious’ efforts if the American elects to grapple, but I’m not sure it will be enough to control Bolanos, who has made efforts to improve his grappling.
I’ll take the Peruvian Bolanos to win a competitive but clear decision.
Gaston Bolanos vs. Cortavious Romious UFC Fight Night 247 odds
The oddsmakers and the public favor the American fighter, listing Romious -215 and Bolanos +172 via FanDuel.
Gaston Bolanos vs. Cortavious Romious UFC Fight Night 247 start time, how to watch
Bolanos and Romious are expected to walk to the cage at approximately 8:05 p.m. ET (5:05 p.m. PT). The fight will stream on ESPN+.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 247.
