A pair of light heavyweights have been teed up for the UFC’s return to London.
Paul Craig (15-4-1 MMA, 7-4-1 UFC) is set to take on Nikita Krylov (27-8 MMA, 8-6 UFC) in March, the promotion announced Friday. They’ll meet at the UFC’s planned Fight Night card March 19 in London.
Craig is unbeaten inn his past five fights. Only a split draw with former champion Mauricio Rua in November 2019 stands between him and a perfect stretch the past two and a half years. His four wins in that run, though, all are stoppages – including when he put Rua away with a barrage of strikes that had “Shogun” tapping in their November 2020 rematch.
Krylov will be looking to get back in the win column and will be fighting for the first time in more than a year. In February 2021, he dropped a decision to Magomed Ankalaev in his return after 11 months away following a win over Johnny Walker.
After a four-fight winning streak that led to his return to the UFC, he has alternated wins and losses. Aside from the Ankalaev loss, his other two setbacks came to Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira, the UFC’s most recent two light heavyweight champions.
With the addition, the UFC London lineup now includes:
- Alexander Volkov vs. Tom Aspinall
- Arnold Allen vs. Dan Hooker
- Jake Hadley vs. Allan Nascimento
- Luana Carolina vs. Molly McCann
- Cody Durden vs. Muhammad Mokaev
- Makwan Amirkhani vs. Mike Grundy
- Jack Shore vs. Timur Valiev
- Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Sergei Pavlovich
- Gunnar Nelson vs. Claudio Silva
- Cory McKenna vs. Elise Reed
- Paul Craig vs. Nikita Krylov
