‘Robocop’ has booked his first UFC headliner.
According to a report from Alex Behunin of MMAMania.com, streaking Brazilian standout Gregory Rodrigues will return to the Octagon on Saturday, February 15 for a showdown with No. 8 ranked middleweight contender Jared Cannonier. The event is expected to emanate from The APEX in Las Vegas.
Rodrigues goes into the bout riding a three-fight win streak with victories over Denis Tiuliulin, Brad Tavares, and Christian Leroy Duncan. Overall, ‘Robocop’ is 7-2 under the UFC banner with his lone losses coming against Arman Petrosyan and Bruno Ferreira. Five of Rodrigues’ seven wins have come inside the distance — all via knockout.
Cannonier looks to snap two-fight skid against ‘robocop’
Meanwhile, Cannonier is coming off the first two-fight losing skid of his UFC run after coming up short against Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho in his last two outings.
Before that, ‘Killa Gorilla’ had an impressive run that saw him win four out of five, including decisions over Kelvin Gastelum, former 185-pound titleholder Sean Strickland, and one-time UFC title challenger Marvin Vettori.
It will be Cannonier’s sixth straight UFC main event.
Check out the card for UFC Vegas 102 thus far:
- Jared Cannonier vs. Gregory Rodrigues
- Rinat Fakhretdinov vs. Gabriel Bonfim
- Julia Avila vs. Jacqueline Cavalcanti
- Rodolfo Vieira vs. Jacob Malkoun
- Ismael Bonfim vs. Nazim Sadykhov
- Juliana Miller vs. Carli Judice
- Jose Delgado vs. Connor Matthews
- Billy Goff vs. Nikolay Veretennikov