Vitor Petrino’s time as a ranked UFC heavyweight didn’t final that lengthy, however that’s not solely stunning to the Brazilian fighter.
Petrino, who faces Steven Asplund at Saturday night time’s UFC Vegas 114 in an try to go 3-0 in the promotion as a heavyweight, was promoted to No. 15 in the official UFC lists after the departure of Jailton Almeida. Days earlier than his March 14 conflict with Asplund, nonetheless, Petrino’s title was faraway from the rankings as Tuivasa was despatched again to the No. 15 spot regardless of being on a six-fight dropping skid, 4 by knockout or submission.
“There’s not much to say, really,” Petrino informed MMA Fighting when knowledgeable of the change. “I don’t know how that ranking works, how the people there do their job, the names involved and all that, but I’m not in a rush. If they took me out, I know that sooner or later I’ll be back again. It delayed the plans a bit, but nothing surprising either. I know that soon enough we’ll be near the top of the division again.”
Petrino went 4-2 as a light-weight heavyweight in the UFC earlier than getting rid of the load lower, and he feels a a lot better athlete now. At heavyweight, the CM System product tapped out Austen Lane in one spherical in July 2025 after which cashed a efficiency bonus for his third-round knockout over Thomas Petersen three months later.
“I can sleep, I can get in the pool, eat something a little different, have some salty food, even taste some chocolate,” Petrino stated of his battle week as a heavyweight. “Just being able to sleep already makes a huge difference, man. At 205, just so you have an idea, I could barely sleep any day of the week. I’d take a one-hour nap and stay awake the entire night. You can’t sleep because there’s no water in your body, and there’s a lot of little aches too. You spend the whole week basically just surviving.”
Petrino stated he will likely be “leaner and heavier” at UFC Vegas 115 if in contrast to his newest battle in Rio de Janeiro, and the opponent modifications gained’t have an effect on him that a lot. The Minas Gerais native was initially introduced to face off with Kennedy Nzechukwu, however apparently that wasn’t the one change.
“It seems like about three different athletes were supposed to fight me,” Petrino stated. “But it didn’t change much because the heavyweight division nowadays has a lot of guys leaning toward striking. I was even surprised by my last opponent, who was a grappler, but he stood and traded. It’s always either a pure grappler or a striker. It’s hard to face a guy who truly does it all and fights MMA.”
Winner of three bonuses up to now in eight octagon appearances, cashing further $150,000 for previous victories over Petersen, Modestas Bukauskas and Anton Turkalj, the Contender Series alumni guarantees to “leave everything inside the octagon” in opposition to Asplund.
“The idea is to chase that 100k bonus,” Petrino stated. “It’s money that solves a lot of things. That’s good too because it pushes us to look for a more intense fight. I’m definitely winning by knockout or submission, and before the third round.”
Petrino will almost definitely re-enter the heavyweight rankings with an enormous victory over Asplund, who gained his UFC debut with a bonus-winning knockout over Sean Sharaf in December, however he’ll save the callout for the second he will get his palms raised on the Meta APEX.
“There are several big names out there, but my focus is on Steven right now,” Petrino stated. “It’s about facing this guy and showing what I have to do. There’s no point holding a plate in your hand and watch what’s happening in the kitchen. As much as there are names I’d like to talk about, I’ll leave that for the right moment.”
