Joe Rogan talks about the heavyweight contender that could give Jon Jones a tough fight

Joe Rogan praised Sergei Pavlovich for his potential in the UFC heavyweight division.

Now that Francis Ngannou has parted ways with the UFC, the heavyweight division has a new future with some fresh faces. The latest contender to keep an eye on is Pavlovich, a 30-year-old Russian with a 5-1 promotional record. During episode #134 of the JRE MMA Show, Rogan had this to say about the knockout artist:

“Pavlovich. That’s the boy. Sergei Pavlovich. That motherf***er. That’s the Russian Francis [Ngannou]. He comes out guns blazing on people, just like Francis used to. That motherf***er can bomb. Very good, very good… He’s to me, with Francis leaving, he’s one of the most interesting guys at heavyweight, if not the most interesting guy at heavyweight. I’m very interested to see him fight a guy like Jon Jones. That’s crazy to me.”

After not fighting for two and a half years, Pavlovich put the entire division on notice in 2022. The Russian fought three times in the calendar year, all first-round KO/TKOs, against Shamil Abdurakhimov, Derrick Lewis and Tai Tuivasa. Going into 2023, the 30-year-old could fight for the heavyweight title sooner rather than later.

Watch Joe Rogan discuss Sergei Pavlovich below:

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Joe Rogan uses MMA math to compare Sergei Pavlovich’s performance against Tai Tuivasa to Ciryl Gane’s win at UFC Paris

Although MMA math doesn’t always work, there can be valuable takeaways from evaluating performances between similar opponents. During the same podcast episode, Joe Rogan compared Sergei Pavlovich’s first-round finish against Tai Tuivasa to Gane’s third-round finish against Tuivasa by saying:

“The Tai Tuivasa fight was incredible. You think about Ciryl Gane going through that war with him, and Sergei just put it on him. His boxing is f***ing tight. Very tight, man. Real power punches, excellent technique. Big guy too. Big heavy f**k… That f***ing dude can crack. He can crack. He’s interesting. So, I want to see him fight more…”

Pavlovich made his UFC debut against Alistair Overeem in late 2018. The Russian suffered a first-round defeat but bounced back with two first-round wins in 2019. After battling injuries and visa issues, the number three ranked heavyweight returned in 2022 for three more first-round finishes.