UFC Vegas 57 Preview
The UFC will be heading back to the Apex in Las Vegas for UFC Vegas 57 on Saturday June 24th. The main event will be in the lightweight division between #11 Arman Tsarukyan and #12 Mateusz Gamrot.
Tsarukyan (18-2, 5-1 UFC) is currently on a five-fight winning streak and is coming off two straight finishes most recently defeating Joel Alvarez by second round TKO in February. His only loss in the UFC came to Islam Makhachev in his debut but he has shown great improvement in his last three fights.
The 25-year-old is confident heading into his fight with Gamrot. “He’s a very good fight for me. He’s a ranked guy. He is confident, he doesn’t scare. He is like me, he is man, he wants to fight with everybody,” said Tsarukyan. “But he knows I am a very bad matchup for him. I have a lot more experience than him in the UFC… (His last) three fights, he beat easy (opponents).”
Tsarukyan has high expectations for a finish of Gamrot on Saturday. “I would like to fight more than three rounds, honestly. Because I haven’t had experience more than three rounds. I want to beat him in maybe fourth round, to stop him, like KO. I know it’s gonna be good KO,” claimed Tsarukyan. “I have been doing this kick since two years or three years, but I never throw during a fight. This is gonna be the first time when I throw that kick. It’s gonna be surprising… More better (than Chandler’s KO of Ferguson).”
Gamrot has won three straight fights and most recently defeated Carlos Diego Ferreira by second round TKO in December. The Polish fighter in 20-1 as a pro and 3-1 in the UFC having only lost his debut fight in the UFC by a close split decision.
The 31-year-old has studied his opponents high skills but feels he holds the advantage in a few key aspects of this fight. “Nobody want to fight with Arman, a lot of people are scared of him,” Gamrot said. “Nobody want to fight with me. We will meet together in the octagon. He’s a great fighter. Good striker, good wrestling, but I think his weakness is jiu-jitsu. I’m more experienced guy with five rounds. I’m used to the pressure. I used to be champion (in KSW) and I think it’s going to be a great show.”
Gamrot wants to prove that he is a championship rounds type of fighter. “I don’t want to finish the fight too early,” Gamrot said. “This is going to be five rounds of violence. This is probably going to be the biggest test for me so far and I’m super ready for this guy. If I see an opportunity early, I will take it.”
The winner of this fight will certainly make a splash in the lightweight division and can expect a high-profile fight to be next. Tsarukyan has been much more outspoken about fighting top ranked guys in the division while Gamrot has taken a humble fight by fight approach. Should Tsarukyan win you can expect him to call out a big name while if Gamrot wins it will likely be business as usual.
The co-main event of the evening will be in the welterweight division as #10 Neil Magny will face #15 Shakkat Rakhmonov.
Magny has put together a hall of fame type career but just has not won the big marquee fight when he needed it to put him over the top. Rakhamonov represents new blood and is not the name Magny needs to prove he is worthy of title contention, but a win does prove yet again that he is no steppingstone in the welterweight division.
Magny has won two straight over Geoff Neal and most recently Max Griffin in March. He has key victories in his career over former champions Robbie Lawler, Johny Hendricks and Carlos Condit, albeit after they were champions and certainly out of their prime. He also has big wins over Li Jingliang, Hector Lombard, Kelvin Gastelm, Erick Silva and Tim Means.
The 34-year-old is tied with Georges St. Pierre for the most wins in the welterweight division with 19. He is also one of only three fighters to tally five wins in a calendar year and he has the longest fight time in welterweight history with 5:34:48. Magny is known as a fighter who will ask for fights because he does not want to be inactive, even with fighters that everyone else seems to want to avoid. Enter this fight with Rakhmonov.
Magny feels he needs to change his approach in this fight if he wants to win. “There is a level of tenacity I have to bring to this fight against a guy like Shavkat,” Magny said. “I can’t just rely on sitting back, jabbing, and forcing him to close the distance because I can almost guarantee that’s what his camp is expecting and waiting for, and game-planning in terms of ‘this is how we’re going to shut this down.”
The Brooklyn native went on to say, “I have to make sure there is power with most shots that I throw, and not just relying on being there for the distance and the cardio. I need to make sure I’m hitting him with some pretty heavy shots so it’s, ‘this isn’t what I saw in the video; where did this come from?’”
Magny is prepared to find out how good his opponent is and if he is ready to fight a Neil Magny type of fight. “I know what I’m capable of at this point,” he said. “There is definitely not anything surprising that I’m going to see in the fight, but meeting a person that is willing to dig as deep as I am, that’s willing to endure the kind of pace I can put on a guy, that’s the exciting part.
“I know he’s a good submission artist. I know he has knockout power,” he added. “I know he does all these things well, but is he willing to put out the amount of effort it’s going to take to survive the kind of pace I’m going to put on him? That’s what I’m excited to find out.”
A win for Magny cements his place in the record books at welterweight and perhaps gets him a shot at another big-time fight, and a chance to prove he can win that marquee fight that puts him in the title conversation.
Rakhmonov is 15-0 and has burst on the welterweight scene in the UFC with authority, winning all three of his fights by finish. He has been given high praise by the MMA community but has not faced the level of competition that Magny represents.
The 27-year-old respects Magny for taking a fight with him. “I believe I wasn’t the fight that Neil originally wanted, but I respect him for taking the challenge. I believe it’s going to be a good challenge for me as well, which is going to show who is the better fighter. Nothing personal against him. I respect him as an athlete. But we’ll find out who’s better,” said Rakhmonov.
The Uzbekistan native believes he will be a welterweight champion soon. “I believe 2023 or 2024, God willing, I will be the champion.”
The rest of the main card:
Heavyweight- Josh Parisian vs. Alan Baudot
Lightweight - Thiago Moisés vs. Christos Giagos
Bantamweight - Nate Maness vs. Umar Nurmagomedov
Middleweight - Chris Curtis vs. Rodolfo Vieira
ESPN 2 Prelims:
Light Heavyweight -Carlos Ulberg vs. Tafon Nchukwi
Featherweight - Shayilan Nuerdanbieke vs. T.J. Brown
Bantamweight - Raulian Paiva vs. Sergey Morozov
Flyweight - JP Buys vs. Cody Durden
Bantamweight - Brian Kelleher vs. Mario Bautista
Women's Strawweight - Vanessa Demopoulos vs. Jinh Yu Frey
