Walt Harris was supposed to face Alexey Oleynik until the latter was moved to the main event of UFC on ESPN+ 7 opposite Alistair Overeem. He nonetheless gets an equally dangerous opponent in Sergey Spivak, a surging, young Moldovan who will be making his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut.
The bout takes place at UFC Fight Night 151 next week and will go ahead despite Harris recently accepting a four-month USADA retroactive suspension for a failed drug test.
Let the numbers below show why this heavyweight encounter is one to behold.
Height and size
At 6’5”, Harris is two inches taller than Spivak. He is also considerably bigger at 252 lbs. Spivak, on the other hand, walks around at 238 lbs.Octagon experience
After seven fights in regional promotions, Harris made his UFC debut at The Ultimate Fighter 18 finale on Nov. 30, 2013. He was pitted against fellow debutant, Jared Rosholt, and lost by unanimous decision. It was followed by two more losses before he finally scored his first UFC victory by knocking out Cody East.In all, Harris is 4-6 (1 NC) in UFC competition. That includes bouts with two former heavyweight champions in Fabricio Werdum and Andrei Arlovski. Spivak, meanwhile, is in the same position as Harris more than five years ago. “The Polar Bear” will be making his Octagon debut after phenomenal stints in various promotions in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and his home country of Moldova.
Wins by knockout
With 100 percent of his victories coming by way of KO or TKO, Harris owns some of the heaviest hands in the heavyweight division. That power extended from the regional promotions into the UFC. The long list of fighters he starched includes Justin Thornton, Wes Little, Cedric James, Josh Robertson, Tony Melton and DJ Linderman as well as former or current UFC standouts Anthony Hamilton, East, Chase Sherman, Cyril Asker and Daniel Spitz.Spivak has forced knockouts of his own, tallying four out of nine victories. His victims include Andrey Serebrianikov, Artem Cherkov, Luke Morton and Ivo Cuk.