According to reports from MMAJunkie.com today, Fabio Maldonado has verified he is facing Igor Pokrajac at UFC on Fuel 3 on May 15th in Virginia.
Pokrajac was originally slated to face Thiago Silva but that fight was scrapped due to Silva being promoted to the main event of the UFC on Fuel event in April. Silva will now face Alexander Gustaffson, his original opponent Antonio Noguiera had to drop out due to an injury. This left Pokrajac with out an opponent for the May 15th event but now it seems Maldonado has filled the spot.
Maldonado is not as well known as Silva but should not be taken lightly as he sports a record of 14 wins and only 4 defeats. He is a former professional boxer and trains with current UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos. The key for Igor in this fight is to use his superior wrestling and take the fight to the mat and pound out a win. Pokrajac does not want to get in to a slug fest with Fabio as he is an accomplished boxer and apparently has an iron jaw. The Croatian light heavyweight should be the favourite in this fight and a win will just solidify his claim as a top light heavyweight in the UFC.
No word from Igor Pokrajac or anyone from his camp yet to verify that this is the scheduled bout. I will let the readers know once this is verified by Pokrajac or a member of his camp.
Written by Mike “Croatian Crippler” Rožić
You can follow me on twitter @crocrippler or on Facebook “Croatian Crippler”
Hi Gays anybody knows where to get The Duke T-Shirt?
Thanks brother.
I’d love to see Pokrajac face Gustaffson. I think Alexander is the next rising star in that weight class so imagine those two fought. I think Alexander would own Pokrajac but it be fun to see.
@anonymous
Antonio Noguiera was Alexander Gustaffson’s original opponent but he had to pull out due to injury. Silva took Noguiera’s place against Gustaffson which left Pokrajac without an opponent.
The way it is written, it makes no sense why Silva pulled out and how that had to do with whoever Gustaffson is. I don’t follow.
Yeah I was thinking that there’s no point in fighting guys that are worse than you as well, but I just feel nervous for him going in there against Silva. I think this could be a good fight for Pokrajac. Like you said, Maldonado’s record is good. Hopefully he wins it convincingly and gets a lot of confidence from the victory.
@Poglavnik
Not really because he doesn’t really gain anything from this fight. If he destroys him then they will say the guy was a nobody and if he loses he lost to a no namer and he will fall out of contention.
In my opinion its a lose lose for Pokrajac. Best case scenario he beats him bad and calls out a top guy.
A much better fight for “The Duke” at this point in his career i think…