A pair of top-10 heavyweights will throw down in February as Sergei Pavlovich takes on Jairzinho Rozenstruik on Feb. 1 at a UFC Fight Night event from Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Two people with knowledge of the matchup confirmed the booking to MMA Junkie but asked to remain anonymous since the promotion has yet to make an official announcement. MMA Mania was first to report the news.
Pavlovich (18-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) will look to snap a two-fight skid after back-to-back losses to Tom Aspinall for the interim title and most recently Alexander Volkov at UFC on ABC 6 in June. Prior to that, Pavlovich had knocked out six opponents in a row, all in the first round.
Rozenstruik (15-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) is on his first winning streak since 2019. “Bigi Boy” is coming off two straight wins over Shamil Gaziev in March, followed by Tai Tuivasa at UFC 305 in August.
With the addition, the current UFC Saudi Arabia lineup incldues:
- Ikram Aliskerov vs. Andre Muniz
- Sergei Pavlovich vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik