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Intriguing light heavyweight talent Ion Cutelaba will step inside the Octagon for the seventh time when he battles Khalil Rountree at UFC Fight Night 160 on Saturday in Copenhagen, Denmark. At just 25 years of age and with seven years of professional experience under his belt, “The Hulk” has emerged as one of the more interesting prospects in the 205-pound weight class. Though Cutelaba-Rountree has not received much attention, it pits two potential future Top 10 light heavyweights against each other.

Cutelaba’s exploits are under the microscope in this installment of The Film Room.



Cutelaba remains a person of interest at 205 pounds mainly because of his youth and athleticism. He is not going to wow us with anything we have not seen before, but his aggression and understanding of the basics has earned him a respectable 3-3 record in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Cutelaba is aggressive to a fault, and most of his striking is done with his opponent’s back to the cage. With the opponent trapped on the fence, he can unload with vicious combos to the head and body. He also likes to switch between trading in the pocket against the cage and clinching with opponents and striking from there, which makes his aggression more unpredictable. The only concern with his cage striking is how he often gets overzealous and swings wildly, allowing the opponent to circle off the cage. If he can learn to be patient in these moments of madness, Cutelaba will have much more success keeping opponents where he wants them. Even in the final seconds of a fight, striking like this will get you nowhere in the UFC.



Something worth noting about his striking is how he mixes in exchanges in the clinch. Cutelaba will throw an overhand right and place it behind the opponent’s head to grab the clinch. If the punch lands clean, it is a bonus, but he is really just throwing the overhand to grab a single-collar tie. This is a tactic upon which Daniel Cormier has built his career, and Cutelaba is slowly learning little tricks like this to achieve the double- or single-collar tie. Once in the clinch, he likes his elbows and knees to the body, but he will also throw uppercuts with a single-collar tie.



Cutelaba is most comfortable in a firefight, but he can have success striking at range. Most of his leading attacks are used to back the opponent to the cage, but he has won some fights mostly striking in the center of the Octagon. However, in his most recent appearance against Glover Teixeira, his reliance on the clinch and exchanges in the pocket was exploited. Teixeira picked him apart on the outside with his usual overhand right-lead hook combo, and Cutelaba had no answers. Once he tried to close the distance, Teixeira ducked for the hips and took him down. Cutelaba needs to work on those deficiencies in the future.



Cutelaba grew up wrestling and competed in sambo and judo when he was younger, but we have not seen much of his grappling in the UFC. He was submitted in his last fight, but Teixeira is a world-class jiu-jitsu player who can tap anyone in the division. He has proven to have decent transitional grappling and the ability to reverse opponents’ takedowns to achieve top position, but a grappling-based fighter like Teixeira remains his kryptonite. Against Rountree, Cutelaba figures to get the three-round kickboxing fight he desires.