Two-time NCAA champion wrestler Roman Bravo-Young has just been booked to make his BJJ debut at the upcoming UFC Fight Pass Invitational 4 on June 29th, 2023. While it will be his first grappling match with submissions allowed, Bravo-Young has spent more time on the mats both in training and in competition than most people ever will. He’s a five-time NCAA All-American and has been a force to be reckoned with in the 133lbs division for years now, including in freestyle wrestling where he holds a win over UFC world champion Aljamain Sterling.
Now it seems as though Roman Bravo-Young will be taking on a slightly different challenge in his combat sports career, as UFC Fight Pass have been able to convince him to make his BJJ debut at their next event. They haven’t exactly given him an easy match either, as he’ll be coming up against current UFC flyweight fighter Alex Perez. He was also a wrestler in his youth, but Perez made the transition to MMA and quickly amassed a 18-4 professional record in order to earn a UFC contract. Since then Perez has gone 6-3 in the promotion and even challenged for a title against Deiveson Figueiredo, although he was unsuccessful in his attempt.
Bravo-Young and Perez will be meeting at featherweight for this match, and it will serve as one of several superfights on an excellent card that will be headlined by Craig Jones v Felipe Pena. Alongside that, a match between two tough UFC veterans will serve as the co-main event as Glover Teixeira and Anthony Smith are set to battle it out. The rest of the card has yet to be confirmed but if these three matches are anything to go by, it’s going to be a crazy night of high-level grappling action from start to finish.
Roman Bravo-Young announced the news that he was taking on Alex Perez in his BJJ debut at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 4 on June 29th, 2023 in a post to his official Instagram account:
