5 UFC Heavyweight Fights We're Looking Forward To

5. Jared Rosholt vs. Oleksiy Oliynyk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11E5za_ByZE When: UFC Fight Night 57 - November 22nd, 2014 Jared Rosholt (11-1) is undefeated in his UFC career so far. With three wins, that makes him one of the top heavyweight prospects currently in the division. In fact, the other big prospect to this point was Derrick Lewis, but his train was derailed last week by Matt Mitrione. Fun fact: the "1" in Rosholt's 11-1 record actually represents Lewis, who beat him outside the UFC. Which makes Rosholt a bit of a conundrum. He met Soa Palelei in New Zealand last, and was the underdog - but came out on top. His blanketing wrestling style isn't popular with the "just bleed" fans, but if he keeps doing what he's doing, the UFC and MMA media at large will be hard pressed to ignore him, as they have thus far (despite defeating Palelei at a time when the Hulk was in the top 15 on the UFC's official heavyweight rankings, Rosholt has yet to crack the list). Enter Oleksiy Olinyk. Oliynyk is really a step back for Rosholt if you consider the rankings. He did win his UFC debut against Anthony Hamilton, and that came after a solid run where he picked up wins over some of the bigger names outside the top promotions - Jeff Monson, Mirko Cro-Cop etc. That said, he's not where Palelei was - but he happens to be a fighter with a high level submission game. It's almost as if the UFC are hoping that he might choke out the rising heavyweight prospect Rosholt, and the wrestler will have no choice but to put his head in the lion's mouth if he plans to rely on his usual strengths. This could wind up in a sloppy stand-up fight, but in the end, we're simply looking forward to this fight to see if Rosholt can adapt and prove to be worthy of the top fifteen. If he beats Oliynyk, the UFC will be hard-pressed to deny him a shot at another top fifteen fighter.