‘The Baltic Gladiator’ Tests the ‘Trator’ in Knockout Knowledge at UFC Fight Night
A meeting at Meta APEX is not a usual coffee and biscuit meeting. Instead, the meetings that take place here are ones forged in blood and focused aggression that makes gladiators of the past jealous with envy. Here under the lights of the octagon, the UFC hosts fighters from across the world who all vie to climb the ladder of their respective divisions. In the Men’s Light Heavyweight Division, two such fighters will meet to climb that ladder, and their names are Modestas Bukauskas and Rodolfo Bellato. The matchup is also part of the UFC Fight Night card headlined by featherweight contenders such as, Arnold Allen and Melquizael Costa.
Bukauskas is also known as ‘The Baltic Gladiator’, who hails from Lithuania and is sitting at 32 years old. Primarily, he is a knockout specialist due to almost half of his wins being from TKOs alone. He does absorb fewer blows when compared to his opponent, too. If he doesn’t go for any takedowns with submissions as the end goal, he very well could notch another win. This is because a takedown in the world of mixed martial arts can be risky to fighters who prefer to have their strategies play out while standing. The risk comes from the openings that are created when a fighter attempts a takedown.
Bellato looks to make such an attempt an advantage to his standup and ground game. He is the more versatile of the two fighters and can create a submission or knockout from the reaction of his opponents. For such a reason, he is known as ‘Trator’ as he can turn his opponent’s best strategies into being traitorous to their own well-being during a bout. On top of his strong takedown defense, he has landed more strikes per minute than his competition. However, the Brazilian contender absorbs more strikes from the openings that he creates from striking too much and from the takedown attempts he executes.
The statistics take all of this into account and currently show Bukauskas as the winner of the matchup. This can be attributed to a variety of reasons, but ‘The Baltic Gladiator’ may be known as probably one of the greatest gladiators of our time because he avoids strikes. By doing so, it does not matter how much his opponents throw because at the end of the match, if none of them land, the points will be in his favor. He could be upset with a well-executed takedown, and ‘Trator’ will certainly attempt it during the second round. However, it is unlikely it will be successful as the 32-year-old fighter has some defense for any takedowns made against him.
The numbers of this fight will favor Bukauskas because he is also the more experienced fighter with more fights under his career at this point. He’s seen opponents like the one he is about to face and even landed an arm triangle submission in one of his last five fights. He will see his younger competitor coming and look to capitalize on any mistakes he makes or faltering in things as simple as footwork. If the UFC veteran looks to win, he’ll have to be light on his feet and resist creating any advantage for his gladiatorial opponent to take advantage of. The best way to see which one of these gladiators will win is to stream the fight through Paramount+ by 8:00 p.m. EDT!
