On the main card tomorrow night at UFC Vegas 101, we are going to see a very intriguing matchup between two middleweight contenders just outside the top fifteen. “The Action Man” Chris Curtis (31-11, 1 NC) will try to reverse his recent fortunes as he takes on dangerous striker Roman Kopylov (13-3).
Starting with Kopylov, the UFC brought him in back in 2019 when he had a perfect professional record of 8-0. However, he lost his first two fights inside the octagon. Since then, he’s gone an impressive 5-1 with the lone loss being against Anthony Hernandez last February. His last fight was a win over Cesar Almeida back in June.
Standing on the other side of the octagon from Kopylov tomorrow night will be Chris Curtis. Curtis got off to a very hot start inside the octagon winning his first three fights which included stopping Brendan Allen in the second round. Since then, it’s been a little up and down for The Action Man.
He lost to Jack Hermansson and then he knocked out Joaquin Buckley. After the Buckley fight, he had a loss followed by a No Contest in a fight where he was losing. He defeated Marc-Andre Barriault before losing a rematch against Brendan Allen back in April. Curtis knows that losing two in a row doesn’t bode well for his UFC title aspirations so he needs a win tomorrow night.
UFC Vegas 101 Prediction
In terms of their overall game, I actually really like Chris Curtis as an underdog tomorrow. While he hasn’t shown it inside the octagon, Curtis does actually have really good offensive wrestling. We’ve just only seen him use his defensive wrestling inside the octagon to keep the fight standing where he’s more comfortable.
Curtis is a very good counter striker with his boxing, but as an overall striker, he’s going to be at a disadvantage against Kopylov. I love Kopylov’s ability to mix things up and control distance. Curtis can hold his own, but if he tries to just strike with Kopylov, I don’t see him picking up the win at UFC Vegas 101.
If Curtis fights with more forward pressure while mixing in a takedown here and there to keep Kopylov guessing, I think he can easily win a decision. However, I think he’ll fall into the pattern of just striking with Kopylov and we will see a fight similar to his Nassourdine Imavov fight before it ended in a No Contest.
Prediction: Roman Kopylov by Decision