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 fighter on the preliminary card, but rather one that the common fan may have overlooked or underestimated.
Andre Petroski
Affiliation – Daniel Gracie Jiu-Jitsu
From – Springfield Township, Pennsylvania
Height – 6’0″
Weight – 185 lbs (Middleweight)
Record – 6-1 (1-0, UFC)
What makes him impressive
Like any fighter we’ve seen come out of Daniel Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (Sean Brady, Jeremiah Wells, Pat Sabatini), Petroski has a suffocating grappling style. However, it isn’t like a lot of wrestle heavy guys where it pins you and eventually might open slightly to some ground and pound. Instead, it leads perfectly to a lot of submissions. Arm triangles, guillotines, rear naked chokes – they’re all right there with the style that these guys bring. For Petroski, it’ll always be about getting his striking to a place where it leads to that easily. However, so far he’s been able to make it work.
Why he has been overlooked
The quick reason as to why he was overlooked was his loss on The Ultimate Fighter. Despite having a phenomenal start in his semi-finals fight with eventual winner Bryan Battle, Petroski tired a bit and was submitted. He didn’t do much to assuage those concerns in his debut as he appeared to lose a little of that steam as the fight went on. Although, he did manage to outwork his opponent en route to a big finish in the third.
I think the fact that he showed he could get it done late is part of why he enters Saturday as a -245 favorite (Odds courtesy of FanDuel). However, I still think fans could be higher on this guy’s potential.
What makes this a good match-up
Hu Yaozong is one of the least experienced fighters on the UFC roster. He’s just 3-2 in his career and just 0-2 in the UFC. This will be his first time at middleweight after fighting at both heavyweight and light heavyweight. While that does mean that he figures to be pretty big for the division, he has not been great at stuffing takedowns in his career. In fact, in his UFC stint, he has yet to stop a single attempt. As a result, this is a nightmare kind of match-up for him, especially as it is a short notice fight and his original opponent was not a threat wrestling.
Prelim Breakout Star Record: 231-108-1 (2 NC) (13 DNF)
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