Two flyweights who are looking to get back in the win column will be meeting head-on this coming Saturday in the preliminary portion of UFC 264: Poirier vs. McGregor 3. Who between Jerome Rivera and Zhalgas Zhumagulov will score that elusive UFC win? Check out our preview of this fight below along with their respective odds to win the bout.
Rivera is still looking to earn his first win in the UFC after failing in all of his past three tries. In his last fight, he got knocked out by Ode Osbourne in the first round back in February 2021. The last time he won a fight was nearly a year ago. He defeated Luis Rodriguez via unanimous decision in a matchup under the promotion of Dana White’s Contender Series. Rivera started his MMA pro career in 2014 and won all his first seven fights, mostly via submissions and decisions. Even though he’s on a bad losing streak, Rivera should still feel confident about his chances this weekend against the smaller Zhumagulov, who’s six inches shorter than the 5-10 Renegade. Rivera also has a significant six-inch reach advantage that could keep the Kazakh from being too aggressive.
Like Rivera, Zhumagulov is also looking to end a losing skid. Zhumagulov has lost both of his last two fights via unanimous decisions. He absorbed a loss at the hands of Raulian Paiva in July 2020 then suffered another defeat when he fell short against Amir Albazi in January 2021. Even in those losses, Zhumagulov managed to put pressure on both Paiva and Albazi. Against Paiva, Zhumagulov even landed more significant strikes and had two takedowns Zhumagulov is a dangerous striker with six knockout wins. He will be looking for an opportunity to land some clean shots against the longer and taller Rivera, whose striking defense remains suspect. Zhumagulov is landing 4.17 significant strikes per minute in his UFC career, thus far, while Riera is only recording 3.08.
