5 Fighters on the UFC 221 hot seat

Modified Feb 09, 2018 14:07 GMT

UFC Fight Night: Rockhold v BispingUFC 221 takes place this Saturday (Feb. 10, 2018) from Perth, Australia and featured in the main event is the interim middleweight title fight pitting former 185-pound kingpin Luke Rockhold against Yoel Romero.While a number of fighters are welcoming the warm weather down in Perth, others will be feeling the heat for different reasons as they are in desperate need of a victory. Here are five fighters on the preverbal "Hot Seat" ahead of UFC 221.

#4 Mizuto Hirota

Will moving up a weight class do wonders for the Japenese lightweight?

Despite having just one loss in his last six fights, Hirota is certainly vulnerable heading into his lightweight matchup against Ross Pearson. The Japanese fighter was pulled close to 24-hours before UFC Fight Night 117 featherweight matchup against Charles Rosa due to a failed weight cut.

As we all know missing weight is one of the cardinal sins of being a fighter and combine that with a unanimous decision loss to Alexander Volkanovski in his last fight, it's a recipe for disaster. The 36-year-old moves back up to the 155-division for the first time since 2012 and has only competed twice since 2016.