Preview: Spivak vs. Sakai
The promising 27-year-old Moldovan will try to draw ever closer to on-paper relevance in the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight division when he challenges American Top Team’s Augusto Sakai in a featured UFC on ESPN 40 attraction this Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Spivak has rattled off four wins across his past seven outings. He last appeared at UFC 272, where he took care of disgraced ex-NFL star Greg Hardy with punches just 2:16 into the first round of their March 5 pairing.
In advance of Spivak’s upcoming confrontation with Sakai, here are five things you might not know about him:
1. He did not shy away from the fast track.
Spivak made his professional debut at the age of 19 when he turned away Andrey Serebrianikov with punches in four-plus minutes at a Real Fight Promotion show on Sept. 28, 2014. He went 2-0 as a teenager, as he submitted Evgeniy Bova with a first-round kimura in his second assignment less than two months later.
2. Some regional gold paid his toll.
“The Polar Bear” captured the vacant World Warriors Fighting Championship heavyweight title in 2017, as he submitted Travis Fulton with a rear-naked choke in the WWFC “Cage Encounter 7” main event. Spivak retained the championship on two subsequent occasions—he victimized Ivo Cuk and Tony Lopez—before signing with the UFC.
3. He tends to sprint.
Spivak rarely needs the judges’ services. He has gone the distance only three times as a pro, losing to Marcin Tybura at UFC Fight Night 169 before defeating Carlos Felipe at UFC Fight Night 172 and Alexey Oleynik at UFC on ESPN 25.
4. He prefers to forego the feeling-out process.
The Chisinau, Moldova, native features nine first-round finishes on his resume. However, eight of the nine took place before Spivak arrived in the UFC in May 2019—the aforementioned rout of Hardy being the lone outlier.
5. Quite a few miles have piled up on his rearview mirror.
Spivak has already fought in seven different countries during his 17-fight career. The well-traveled heavyweight has gone 7-0 in Ukraine, 3-2 in the United States, 1-0 in the United Arab Emirates, 1-0 in Kazakhstan, 1-0 in his native Moldova, 1-0 in Australia and 0-1 in Canada.