The fifth opponent of Kazakh Zhalgas Zhumagulov (14-6) in the UFC will be American Jeff Molina (10-2). The fighters will meet at the tournament, which will be held on June 5 in Las Vegas (Nevada, USA), bbabo.net reports with reference to IridiumSportsAgency.
For the 33-year-old fighter from Aktobe, this will be the fifth appearance in the UFC octagon. Before that, he suffered three defeats with one victory. As for the 24-year-old Molina, he only had two fights with the promotion and won both.
This confrontation has its own history. In July last year, Zhumagulov strangled another American Jerome Rivera (10-6) in the first round, and after the fight he said that he would like to meet Molina in the next fight.
The answer of the American was not long in coming. Back then, Jeff only recently made his UFC debut with a unanimous decision win. He responded to the challenge on his social networks, where he then had a skirmish with Zhumagulov:
DM: "Send me the location."
LJ: "I'll give you hometown advantage because you'll need all the extra help you can get."
DM: "I don't need help. Are you going home to retire after your severance pay?"
Last month we picked five good opponents for Zhumagulov for the fifth fight, and it was Jeff who was the first named fighter. You can read this material here.
Molina started playing professionally at the age of less than 20. His first results were unstable, and he suffered two defeats in three starting fights. But now Jeff is on a streak of nine victories in a row.
On account of his four knockouts and submissions, as well as two wins by decision of the judges. Jeff lost back in 2017: once by surrender, another by decision.
This fighter has dangerous choke holds, and he also works great in the stance. It is known that he is the owner of a purple belt in jiu-jitsu. In a December interview with our publication, Zhumagulov's coach from the United States, Marcos Parrumpa, assessed the degree of skill of the Kazakhstani in jiu-jitsu, calling him a blue belt (second after white, and purple - third. - Approx. ed.).
The Colombian-born fighter fought in different leagues before the UFC, the most famous of which was the Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA). In August the year before last, he won a unanimous decision victory at the Dana White Contender's Series, after which he was promoted to number one. In April last year, he got his first victory in the UFC, defeating Keeleng Aori (18-9) from China. The next confrontation took place at the end of October. Then Jeff defeated Brazilian Daniel Lacerda (11-2) by technical knockout in the second round.
For the last performance, Molina received a bonus for the best performance of the evening. In the new year, the American set himself the goal of getting into the top 15 and getting closer to UFC champion status.
Molina trains at Glory MMA & Fitness in Missouri. He has excellent skills in the stand, and given the advantage in anthropometry - Molina is five centimeters taller, and his arm span is six centimeters higher than Zhalgas's numbers - he is inconvenient for the Kazakhstani. But Zhumagulov may have a definite advantage in physical strength and wrestling. On average, in the UFC, Molina brings an opponent to 8.72 accented punches per minute, missing just over six. Zhumagulov's statistics are slightly worse - 4.6 hits and 5.1 missed.
In the stance, Molina is much more active and versatile, but the Kazakhstani has better defense against takedowns. As for experience in general, Zhumagulov has quite a lot of it, and for Jeff this is probably the most serious opponent in his career.
Recall that Zhumagulov had his last fight in December, losing by technical knockout to Manel Kapu (17-6).
Earlier it became known that another Kazakh fighter recognized his opponent in the next fight.
Photos: IridiumSportsAgency (1), UFC (2)
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