Preview: UFC Fight Night 202 ‘Makhachev vs. Green’

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Middleweights

NR | Gregory Rodrigues (11-3, 2-0 UFC) vs. NR | Armen Petrosyan (6-1, 0-0 UFC)

ODDS: Rodrigues (-155), Petrosyan (+135)

Rodrigues is quickly making a name for himself as one of the more exciting talents in the UFC’s middleweight division, with a chance to become something more. Brazil’s “Robocop” comes from a grappling background, but that is not reflected in his usual approach, as he would often much rather march his opponents down and score a knockout. That got him knocked out in his Dana White’s Contender Series fight against Jordan Williams in 2020, but Rodrigues has spent the ensuing year-plus making that result seem like more and more of an outlier. After scoring two knockout wins in the Legacy Fighting Alliance, Rodrigues won a fun late-notice debut against Dusko Todorovic at UFC Fight Night 189 before winning an absolute war against Jun Yong Park in October. The level of violence on display in the Park fight, along with it being a good win, figured to earn Rodrigues a shot to move up the ladder, but the UFC instead went the guaranteed action route and matched him with a fellow DWCS graduate in Petrosyan. Armenia’s Petrosyan comes from a muay Thai background, and his approach is built entirely around the knockout, which he has been able to find with a solid amount of regularity. On the plus side, “Superman” does not appear to be a frontrunner or a glass cannon. While he has his share of first-round finishes, he has also shown an ability to survive getting outwrestled and carry his power later into a fight, at which point he is still capable of unleashing huge amounts of damage on his opponent’s head or liver. Rodrigues represents a huge step up in competition and makes for an interesting fight. This figures to be guaranteed violence on the feet, and it will also be fascinating to see how Petrosyan fares if Rodrigues decides to pursue a more grappling-heavy game plan in search of what might be an easier win. Rodrigues probably does have the chops to control this fight on the ground as a failsafe, so he is probably the rightful favorite, but he will be hittable as long as this fight remains on the feet and Petrosyan is an extremely potent striker. In admittedly a bit of a flier, the pick is Petrosyan via first-round knockout.

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