A heavyweight clash pitting Sergei Pavlovich against Jairinzho Rozenstruik is on tap for the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s return to Saudi Arabia early next year.
Multiple outlets confirmed the booking following an initial report from MMA Mania. UFC Saudi Arabia takes place on Feb. 1 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh and will mark the Las Vegas-based promotion’s second visit to the Middle Eastern country. The card does not yet have a main event.
Pavlovich will look to halt the first two-bout losing streak of his professional tenure. The 32-year-old Russian last appeared at UFC on ABC 6, where he dropped a unanimous verdict to former training partner Alexander Volkov at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That setback came on the heels of a 69-second knockout loss to Tom Aspinall in an interim heavyweight title bout at UFC 295 last November. Prior to that skid, Pavlovich had finished six consecutive UFC opponents inside of a round.
Rozenstruik will be making his 15th Octagon appearance when he squares off against Pavlovich. “Bigi Boy” is 2-0 thus far in 2024, with a fourth-round TKO win over Shamil Gaziev and a split-decision triumph against Tai Tuivasa to his credit. Rozenstruik is 9-5 during his promotional tenure and also owns notable wins over the likes of Junior dos Santos, Alistair Overeem and Andre Arlovski.
