The Prelim Breakout Star is a once per event article that helps fans get to know those who will be entertaining them from the undercard. The intention of the article is not to bring attention to the most talented guy on the preliminary card, but rather one that the common fan may have overlooked or underestimated.
After the long UFC layoff, they finally return to our computer screens. Unfortunately, this fight card has a lot of fans underwhelmed due to the lack of name value on the card. However, the UFC has found some of the very best untapped European talent for the undercard. Here’s just one that you might not know, but you’ll be happy you watched.
Bojan Velickovic
Nickname – Serbian Steel
Affiliation – Elevation Fight Team
From – Novi Sad, Serbia
Height – 6’2“
Weight – 170 lbs (Welterweight)
Record – 13-3 (0-0 UFC)
What makes him impressive
Velickovic fights really long thanks to his 6’2″ wiry frame. When added to the fact that he fights light on his feet, it makes him really tough to hit. His ability to frustrate opponents with the defense makes his offense all the more impressive. He also has a similar thing going on with his grappling. Again his tall frame makes it difficult for grapplers to get inside. Plus, the skill with which he scrambles makes producing any offense on him near impossible. Bottom line: his defense makes him dangerous.
Why he has been overlooked
As I said in the introduction, there isn’t a lot of publicity for European fighters outside of a few select countries; Ireland, England, Sweden. Certainly, we haven’t seen many Serbian fighters in the cage. However, Velickovic hasn’t just been beating up fighters on the local Serbian stage. He’s fought for one of the very best small promotions in the world: RFA. In RFA he took the welterweight title off of Xtreme Couture product Ben Smith. Add that to the fact that he trains at the fast growing Team Elevation at the MusclePharm facility, and this guy certainly has been pushed to be better before.
What makes this a good match-up
Alessio Di Chirico is an interesting prospect out of Italy. He, like Velickovic, is underrated and is very light on his feet. He’s got a solid single leg takedown that he likes to turn into a back take. However, his level of competition has been significantly lower than Velickovic. He hasn’t faced someone who can defend takedowns and scramble like Bojan can. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles it for the very first time. My prediction is that he winds up with his head in the wrong end of a choke.
Record: 84 Wins, 42 Losses, 1 NC, 2 Did Not Fight (DNF)
- Francisco Trinaldo – UFC on FX: Belfort vs Bisping (W)
- Simeon Thoresen – UFC on Fox: Johnson vs Dodson (L)
- Tyron Woodley – UFC 156 (W)
- Vaughan Lee – UFC on Fuel: Barao vs McDonald (W)
- Dennis Bermudez – UFC 157 (W)
- Cristiano Marcello – UFC on Fuel: Stann vs Silva (L)
- Daron Cruickshank – UFC 158 (L)
- Ryan LaFlare – UFC on Fuel: Mousasi vs Latifi (W)
- Bart Palaszewski – TUF Finale (L)
- Yoel Romero – UFC on Fox: Henderson vs Melendez (W)
- Rustam Khabilov – UFC 159 (W)
- Fabio Maldonado – UFC on FX: Belfort vs Rockhold (W)
- Khabib Nurmagomedov – UFC 160 (W)
- Antonio Braga Neto – UFC on Fuel: Nogueira vs Werdum (W)
- Roland Delorme – UFC 161 (W)
- Seth Baczynski – UFC 162 (L)
- Jorge Masvidal – UFC on Fox: Johnson vs Moraga (W)
- Ednaldo Oliveira – UFC 163 (L)
- Mike Brown – UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs Sonnen (L)
- Dylan Andrews – UFC Fight Night: Condit vs Kampmann (W)
- Soa Palelei – UFC 164 (W)
- Elias Silverio – UFC Fight Night: Teixeira vs Bader (W)
- John Makdessi – UFC 165 (W)
- Alan Patrick – UFC Fight Night: Maia vs Shields (W)
- Andre Fili – UFC 166 (W)
- Jimy Hettes – UFC Fight Night: Machida vs Munoz (W)
- Germaine de Randamie – UFC Fight for the Troops 3 (L)
- Omari Akhmedov – UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs Henderson (W)
- Sergio Pettis – UFC 167 (W)
- Roxanne Modafferi – TUF Finale (L)
- Takeya Mizugaki – UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs Bigfoot (W)
- Alptekin Ozkilic – UFC on Fox: Johnson vs Benavidez (W)
- Siyar Bahadurzada – UFC 168 (L)
- Mairbek Taisumov – UFC Fight Night: Saffiedine vs Lim (W)
- Charlie Brenneman – UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs Philippou (L)
- Walt Harris – UFC on Fox: Henderson vs Thomson (L)
- Clint Hester – UFC 169 (W)
- Joe Proctor – UFC Fight Night: Machida vs Mousasi (W)
- Aljamain Sterling – UFC 170 (W)
- Zak Cummings – TUF China Finale (DNF)
- Cyrille Diabate – UFC Fight Night: Gustafsson vs Manuwa (L)
- Mats Nilsson – UFC Fight Night: Gustafsson vs Manuwa (L)
- Alex Garcia – UFC 171 (W)
- Hans Stringer – UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs Henderson (W)
- Jim Alers – UFC Fight Night: Nogueira vs Nelson (W)
- Ryan Jimmo – TUF Finale (W)
- Caio Magalhaes – UFC on Fox: Werdum vs Browne (W)
- Joe Ellenberger – UFC 172 (DNF)
- Kyoji Horiguchi – UFC Fight Night: Brown vs Silva (W)
- Francisco Trinaldo – UFC 173 (L)
- Iuri Alcantara – UFC FIght Night: Mousasi vs Munoz (W)
- Paulo Thiago – TUF Brazil Finale (L)
- Jon Tuck – UFC Fight Night: Henderson vs Khabilov (W)
- Mike Easton – UFC 174 (L)
- Ian Entwistle – UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs Te Huna (L)
- Ray Borg – UFC Fight Night: Swanson vs Stevens (W)
- Rob Font – UFC 175 (W)
- Derrick Lewis – TUF Finale (W)
- Jessamyn Duke – UFC Fight Night: Cerrone vs Miller (L)
- Nikita Krylov – UFC Fight Night: McGregor vs Brandao (W)
- Patrick Cummins – UFC on Fox: Lawler vs Brown (W)
- Sam Alvey – UFC Fight Night: Bader vs Saint Preux (L)
- Yuta Sasaki – UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs Le (W)
- Ben Saunders – UFC Fight Night: Henderson vs dos Anjos (W)
- Damon Jackson – UFC 177 (L)
- Chas Skelly – UFC Fight Night: Jacare vs Mousasi (W)
- Godofredo ‘Pepey’ Castro – UFC Fight Night: Bigfoot vs Arlovski (W)
- Alex Caceres – UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs Nelson (L)
- Cody Gibson – UFC 178 (L)
- Marcin Bandel – UFC Fight Night: Nelson vs Story (L)
- Jason Saggo -UFC Fight Night: MacDonald vs Saffiedine (L)
- Yan Cabral – UFC 179 (W)
- Jake Mathews – UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs Bisping (W)
- Thomas Almeida – UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs Saint Preux (W)
- Gabriel Benitez – UFC 180 (W)
- Paige VanZant – UFC Fight Night: Edgar vs Swanson (W)
- Clay Collard – UFC 181 (W)
- Aisling Daly – TUF Finale (W)
- Jamie Varner – UFC on Fox 13 (L)
- Jake Collier – UFC Fight Night: Machida vs Dollaway (L)
- Alexis Dufresne – UFC 182 (L)
- Charles Rosa – UFC Fight Night: McGregor vs Siver (W)
- Konstantin Erokhin – UFC on Fox: Gustafsson vs Johnson (L)
- Sara McMann – UFC 183 (L)
- James Moontasri – UFC Fight Night: Henderson vs Thatch (W)
- William ‘Patolino’ Macario – UFC Fight Night: Bigfoot vs Mir (L)
- Norifumi ‘Kid’ Yamamoto – UFC 184 – (NC)
- Joseph Duffy – UFC 185 (W)
- Christos Giagos – UFC Fight Night: Maia vs LaFlare (W)
- Ron Stallings – UFC Fight Night: Lamas vs Mendes (W)
- Stevie Ray – UFC Fight Night: Gonzaga vs Cro Cop 2 (W)
- Beneil Dariush – UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs Machida (W)
- Olivier Aubin-Mercier – UFC 186 (W)
- Lisa Ellis – UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs Miocic (L)
- Dhiego Lima – UFC Fight Night: Edgar vs Faber (L)
- Islam Makhachev – UFC 187 (W)
- Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos – UFC Fight Night: Condit vs Alves (L)
- Ricardo Abreu – UFC Fight Night: Boetsch vs Hendeson (L)
- Henry Cejudo – UFC 188 (W)
- Makwan Amirkhani – UFC Fight Night: Jedrzejczyk (W)
- Steve Mongtomery – UFC Fight Night: Machida vs Romero (L)
- Cody Garbrandt – UFC 189 (W)
- George Sullivan – UFC Fight Night: Ellenberger vs Thompson (W)
- Kevin Casey – UFC Fight Night: Mir vs Duffee (W)
- Jimmie Rivera – UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs Leites (W)
- Andrew Holbrook – UFC on Fox 16 (W)
- Warlley Alves – UFC 190 (W)
- Frankie Saenz – UFC Fight Night: St. Preux vs Teixeira (W)
- Misha Cirkunov – UFC Fight Night: Oliveira vs Holloway (W)
- Nazareno Malegarie – UFC 191 (L)
- Shinsho Anzai – UFC Fight Night: Barnett vs Nelson (W)
- Sage Northcutt – UFC 192 (W)
- Tom Breese – UFC Fight Night: Holohan vs Smolka (W)
- Johnny Case – UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs Henderson (W)
- Kyle Noke – UFC 193 (W)
- Taylor Lapilus – UFC Fight Night: Gastelum vs Magny (L)
- Yui Chul Nam – UFC Fight Night: Henderson vs Masvidal (L)
- Santiago Ponzinibbio – UFC Fight Night: VanZant vs Namajunas (W)
- Ryan Hall – TUF Finale (W)
- Tecia Torres – UFC 194 (W)
- Tamdan McCrory – UFC on Fox 17 (W)
- Scott Holtzman – UFC 195 (L)
- Ilir Latifi – UFC Fight Night: Dillashaw vs Cruz (W)
- Dustin Ortiz – UFC on Fox 18 (L)
- Noad Lahat – UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs Thompson (L)
- Ashlee Evans-Smith – UFC Fight Night: Cowboy vs Cowboy (W)
- Arnold Allen – UFC Fight Night: Silva vs Bisping (W)
- Vitor Miranda – UFC 196 (W)
- Daniel Hooker – UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs Mir (W)
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