A total of 11 fights will be on tap this coming Saturday at the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas, with the fight between Jessica Eye and Cynthia Calvillo as the main event. The supporting bouts aren’t too shabby, though, with the likes of Karl Roberson, Marvin Vettori, Merab Dvalishvili, and Ray Borg adding spice. Read on for a preview of the five main card fights.
Eye (15-7-0) has reaped dividends off her decision to return to the flyweight, as he’s won four and lost one since. That only loss in that stretch was at the hands of Valentina Shevchenko in a title fight in June of last year. Eye bounced back by defeating Vivan Araujo via unanimous decision months later in December. Calvillo settled for a draw in her last fight against Marina Rodriguez. Calvillo (8-1-1) wants to bring the fight to the mat, where she’s more dominant. Calvillo has three submission wins. She also averages 1.57 takedowns per 15 minutes to just 0.51 by Eye.
Roberson (9-2-0) is on a two-fight win streak, having defeated Wellington Turman (split decision) and Roman Kopylov (submission) last year. This bout against Vettori is Roberson’s first fight in 2020, so he’ll be coming in fresh and ready to exchange blows with Vettori. Roberson has a 3.08 strikes landed per minute average. Vettori, “The Italian Dream,” has also won both of his last two fights against Cezar Ferreira and Andrew Sanchez via unanimous decisions. Like Roberson, this is going to be Vettori’s first fight of the year. Vettori averages 3.75 strikes landed per minute.
After back-to-back losses to Frankie Saenz and Ricky Simon, Dvalishvili collected himself and managed to win three fights in a row, all via unanimous decision. In his last fight, Dvalishvili (10-4-1) peppered Casey Kenney with strikes, 114-47, and took him down 12 times to none. This time, he’ll be looking to use his five-inch reach advantage against Borg. The “Taxmexican Devil” has gone2-2 since losing in a title fight to Demetrous Johnson via submission back in 2017. Look for him to bring the fight to the canvas, where he’s more comfortable fighting. Borg (13-5-0) has six submission wins to just one by Dvalishvili.
This should be an exciting fight you don’t want to blink while watching. Fili (20-7-0) has nine knockout wins, thanks in large part to his aggressive striking. In fact, he is landing 4.0 strikes per minute. Among active featherweight fighters in the UFC, Fili is third with three knockout wins in the organization. He is looking to recover from a January loss to Sodiq Yussuf. Jourdain (10-2-0)is a knockout artist himself with seven career knockout wins. He scored his first win (via KO) in the UFC last December when he defeated Dooho Choi.
Two practitioners of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Espinosa (14-7-0) and De La Rosa (11-4-0) will get it on in the first fight of the main card, with each fighter looking to break out of a slump. Espinosa has lost both of his last two fights, while De La Rosa dropped all of his past three bouts. Espinosa has seven submission wins and two by knockouts, while De La Rosa has six submission victories and a 1-1 T(KO) record.
