Two ranked UFC heavyweights are set to collide July 1.
Blagoy Ivanov will meet Romania’s Alexandr Romanov at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Two people with knowledge of the matchup informed MMA Junkie of the booking Thursday but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
A former WSOF champion, Ivanov (19-5 MMA, 3-4 UFC) was signed to the UFC in 2018 and thrown immediately in the deep end with a fight vs. former champion Junior Dos Santos, which he lost by unanimous decision. Since then, Ivanov has mixed results with wins over Ben Rothwell, Tai Tuivasa, and Marcos Rogerio de Lima.
Romanov (16-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) looks to snap a two-fight losing skid, which followed a 16-fight winning streak start to his pro MMA career. Following a majority decision loss to Marcin Tybura, Romanov was quickly finished with ground-and-pound by Alexander Volkov in his most recent fight in March.
With the addition, the UFC Fight Night lineup for July 1 includes:
- Abus Magomedov vs. Sean Strickland
- Rinat Faakhretdinov vs. Kevin Lee
- Melissa Gatto vs. Ariane Lipski
- Khusein Askhabov vs. Joanderson Brito
- Max Griffin vs. Michael Morales
- Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Brunno Ferreira
- Luana Carolina vs. Ivana Petrovic
- Grant Dawson vs. Damir Ismagulov
- Blagoy Ivanov vs. Alexandr Romanov
- Elves Brener vs. Jordan Leavitt
- Ismael Bonfim vs. Benoit Saint-Denis
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night.
