Roman Kopylov vs Alessio Di Chirico Prediction: Kopylov is Simply Better

On September 3, UFC Fight Night 209 mixed martial arts tournament will be held in Paris (France). In one of the main card fights, Russian fighter Roman Kopylov will share the cage with Italian Alessio Di Chirico.

The fight will take place in the middleweight category—none of the fighters are in the top 15 of the official UFC rankings. Bookmaker's odds for both fighters to win are about equal.

Roman came to the UFC without a single defeat under his belt and moreover, all of his victories (except one) he won by knockout. But everything did not go according to plan in the world's strongest league. Kopylov had two fights and lost both of them by split decision to Karl Roberson and by decision to Albert Duraev.

However, the decision in the fight with Duraev was a bit controversial. The first round was a standup fight and it was as close as possible. In the second round Kopylov knocked out his opponent and Albert decided to stop with the standup. During one of the episodes, when Roman was defending himself from the take-down, he grabbed the net with his hand. The referee made a reprimand, the fighters were turned around and Duraev began his attack instantly, which Kopylov was not yet ready for. Defending himself in the ground, Roman suffered a lot of damage (after all, Duraev is the boss in the ground). The third round was won by Kopylov - Kopylov never let himself be defended and confidently outworked his opponent in the standings. The fight as a whole was spectacular. After the end of it the guys hugged each other warmly and went to the hospital, because both of them were seriously injured.

After fight with Duraev, we can safely say that Kopylov's wrestling is already at a high level, but before the fight with Di Chirico, Roman conducted an additional training camp in Dagestan. Though the Italian in wrestling can't be said to be very good, his element is a rack.

Yes, I have to improve wrestling. This is a very important component of training, and nowhere is it better than in Dagestan. There are a lot of strong guys there who helped me to get up to speed. Di Chirico is a good, tough guy. Had some good striking style fights. When it comes to a UFC fighter, there are no bad ones. It's going to be an interesting fight, especially since he really works more in the standup. Everybody likes standup fights, so I think it's going to be a good night.

Roman Kopylov

The Italian has been in the UFC since 2016, but lately he's been fighting just poorly, winning his last five bouts only once, but how he did it - knocking out Joaquin Buckley in the head in the first round. But in his last fight he had already been knocked out by Abdul Razak Alhassan in the first round in the same way.

Roman's last bout gives us every reason to believe that his hopes of winning are very much justified. Kopylov is very good in the standup, and the fight with Di Chirico will most likely be like this. And if any variation is needed, Roman can fight, but Di Chirico is no match for Duraev as far as wrestling is concerned. As for the Russian fighter's willpower qualities, there can be no doubt about it.

Roman now definitely needs to win and gain a foothold in the elite. I expect only victory from him. He had a good training, he had a good training camp in Dagestan. He always trains with dedication and this time should be adjusted, loaded and ready for one hundred percent, going into battle.

Andrei Koshkin