Petz (right) file photo: Peter Lockley/Sherdog.com
The short-notice special of the undercard has Petz returning to the UFC as a late replacement for Julio Paulino against Roberts. Most likely remember Roberts best for his equally awe-inspiring and cringe-inducing KO loss to the human siege tank John Howard. A shame since Roberts was doing quite well for himself up until that point and is certainly capable of handling even a grizzled veteran like Petz.
That’s assuming Roberts resists the temptation to tangle with Petz on the feet. For all of Roberts’ athleticism and natural talent, he doesn’t have much in the way of technique quite yet and Petz is one of the nastiest body-punchers in the game. However, Roberts was gunning for takedowns from the opening bell against Howard, and there is no reason to believe he’s going to change it up for this match.
Once Petz is on his back, he becomes a sub-par fighter because he never developed past a certain point in his grappling. While he did have solid takedown defense back in the day, time has been unkind to those skills and Roberts has the quick level change to give him problems. From top control Roberts does have some bad habits, but he is aggressive with his submission attempts and has the cardio to keep scoring takedowns even when he loses position.
This won’t be an easy fight for Roberts. With that said, he should still be able to beat Petz in a relatively close bout on the strength of his takedowns and aggressive grappling style.