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The undefeated Russian will attempt to move on step closer to contention in the Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight division when he squares off with Dan Ige in the UFC Fight Night 207 co-headliner on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Evloev boasts a perfect 5-0 record inside the Octagon. He last competed at UFC 263, where he outpointed Hakeem Dawodu to a unanimous decision in their three-round pairing on June 12.
As Evloev prepares to return to the cage for the first time in nearly a year, here are five things you might not know about him:
1. He was quick to build a championship pedigree.
Evloev at the age of 20 made his professional debut under the M-1 Global banner in November 2014 and unified the promotion’s bantamweight crown less than three years later when he was awarded a five-round unanimous verdict over Pavel Vitruk at M-1 Challenge 81. He went on to defend the title on two subsequent occasions—he submitted Sergey Morozov and knocked out Rafael Dias—before signing with the UFC in 2019.
2. His primary skills serve him well.
The Ingushetia, Russia, native holds the prestigious Master of Sport designation in Greco-Roman wrestling. Evloev has put those skills to use on the UFC, where he has recorded 20 takedowns and piled up 28-plus minutes of control time across his five assignments inside the Octagon.
3. An attritive approach often carries him to the finish line.
Evloev has gone the distance in more than half (eight) of his 15 outings and owns an 8-0 record with seven unanimous decisions in those bouts. The lone outlier saw him split scorecards with Nik Lentz at UFC 257 on Jan. 23, 2021. Evloev outlanded “The Carny” by a 137-50 margin in the match.
4. He covers all the bases with his preparation.
The former M-1 Global champion now operates out of American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, where he has had access to a number of distinguished coaches and world-class training partners, including Kyoji Horiguchi, Dustin Poirier, Edson Barboza and Adriano Moraes. He trained previously at Tiger Muay Thai and Fight Club Nart.
5. Home-road splits have had no impact on him.
The unbeaten Evloev has fought in five different countries during his 15-fight career. He owns a 10-0 mark in his native Russia and has gone 2-0 in the United Arab Emirates, 1-0 in the United States, 1-0 in Singapore and 1-0 in China.