Report: Former WSOF Heavyweight Champion Blagoy Ivanov Signs With UFC
A potential huge addition is coming to the UFC Heavyweight Division according to MMA Fighting as they report that former WSOF Heavyweight Champion Blagoy Ivanov has signed a multi-fight deal with the promotion.
Ivanov (16-1-0-1NC) rides a five fight winning streak into his potential UFC and the fighters lone loss came to former Bellator MMA Heavyweight Champion Alexander Volkov at Bellator 120. Ivanov has already defeated a host of UFC stars before entering the promotion, with those wins coming over former UFC Heavyweight Champion Ricco Rodriguez, Lavar Johnson, Josh Copeland and Shawn Jordan. Ivanov won the World Series Of Fighting Heavyweight Title with a third round submission win over Smealinho Rama at the WSOF 21 in June of 2015. He's also known for beating Fedor Emelianenko in combat sambo.
The report from MMA Fighting also states that Ivanov could make his promotional debut this summer, but no opponent or date has been mentioned.
This signing means that a total of seven former WSOF champions have come to the UFC in recent years, with those title holders being the aforementioned Ivanov, former middleweight/light heavyweight champion David Branch, former lightweight champion Justin Gaethje, former featherweight champion Rick Glenn, former bantamweight champion Marlon Moraes, former flyweight champion Magomed Bibulatov and former women’s strawweight champion Jessica Aguilar.
