Preview: UFC Fight Night 243 Prelims

Lightweights

Ludovit Klein (22-4-1, 6-2-1 UFC) vs. Roosevelt Roberts (12-4, 4-4 UFC)

ODDS: Klein (-800), Roberts (+550)

Klein is ready for a step up in competition, but he gets to stay busy here. The UFC’s first fighter from Slovakia, Klein quickly plateaued as a featherweight prospect but found a new life once he moved up to lightweight in 2022. The situation has improved in fits and starts for “Mr. Highlight,” as his approach has typically consisted of a grab bag of techniques, but everything has seemed to finally click since a win over Ignacio Bahamondes about a year ago. Klein’s commitment to pace can be a bit spotty, but he’s a powerhouse of an athlete who has consistently gotten better at maintaining his preferred range. Despite his squat frame, Klein is at his best standing at a middle distance and unleashing a ton of power, including what has become his signature high kick. Between tearing apart an aggression pressure fighter like Bahamondes and a slow-paced neutralizer like Thiago Moises in his last handful of fights, Klein should probably be fighting for a ranking at this point. For whatever reason, he has been set to get a step back in competition, first against Nikolas Motta and now against a late replacement in Roberts. That’s no insult to Roberts, a solid fighter who seems to be stuck between being too good for the regional scene but not able to string together much success at the UFC level. This marks the second fight of his second stint with the promotion. Roberts initially came to the UFC through Dana White’s Contender Series in 2018, using his lanky frame to frustrate opponents on the feet and find some crafty submission techniques. However, that length has been a double-edged sword. Roberts’ reedy frame has run him into trouble against opponents who can consistently overpower him. That made his return engagement against Mateusz Rebecki, a ball of muscle out of Poland, seem a bit cruel in what wound up as a one-sided loss, and it’s hard not to have a similar feeling in this assignment. Klein might not run over Roberts as quickly as Rebecki did, but this looks like a pairing where he’s going to land a lot of hard offense and eventually find the finish in a war of attrition. The pick is Klein via second-round stoppage.

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