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Preview: UFC Fight Night 221 ‘Yan vs. Dvalishvili’

Petrino vs. Turkalj


Light Heavyweights

Vitor Petrino (7-0, 0-0 UFC) vs. Anton Turkalj (8-1, 0-1 UFC)

ODDS: Petrino (-110), Turkalj (-110)

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Light heavyweights look for their first UFC win in this striker-versus-grappler matchup. Turkalj came to Dana White’s Contender Series in 2022 with a decent bit of hype, and while “The Pleasure Man” certainly brought the pre-fight charisma, the fun came to a halt once his fight started. Turkalj’s wild striking can make things an entertaining adventure, but the Swede is at his most comfortable when he can implement his wrestling; and his Dana White’s Contender Series win over Acacio dos Santos was an ugly decision that came via a low-output grind. Turkalj was not granted a contract immediately but still found his way to the UFC as a late-notice sacrificial lamb a few weeks later, stepping in against surging heavyweight prospect Jailton Almeida and getting run over for his troubles. With his foot in the door, Turkalj cuts back down to 205 pounds to take on a fellow DWCS alum in Petrino, who did in fact earn a contract outright in September. Petrino is much more the typical prospect that gets picked up from DWCS nowadays, a high-upside slugger with a thin resume, though the Brazilian at least took out historically flammable UFC vet Gadzhimurad Antigulov in 2021. Takedown defense proved to be a weakness for Petrino before he turned things around on DWCS, which presents a clear path to victory for Turkalj here in what appears to be a fairly binary matchup. Either Turkalj wins in a grind or he gets knocked out trying. It is a toss-up, but the pick is Turkalj via decision.



Jump To »
Yan vs. Dvalishvili
Romanov vs. Volkov
Krylov vs. Spann
Ramos vs. Lingo
Nurmagomedov vs. Martinez
Petrino vs. Turkalj
The Prelims

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