Athletes
Serghei Spivac: The Continued Maturation Of ‘The Polar Bear’
Moldovan Heavyweight Is Still Improving, And Ready To Showcase His Evolution In His Rematch With Marcin Tybura This Weekend
MMA fighters are a constant work in progress, and Serghei Spivac plans on showing the world how much he’s improved when he faces Marcin Tybura for the second time at UFC Vegas 95 this weekend.
The pair will face off in a heavyweight rematch at the UFC APEX, more than four years on from their first meeting, which Tybura won via unanimous decision in Norfolk, Virginia back in February 2020.
“A lot of time has passed,” he told UFC.com ahead of this weekend’s rematch.
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“I've grown, I've matured, I'm more confident in myself, and I think that it's gonna be a very different fight. I got more mature. I have more experience. I think that's it.”
That maturation includes a refreshing approach to his defeat to Tybura in their first fight. Spivac has taken that unanimous decision defeat on the chin, and says he’s grateful for the lessons he learned from that bout.
“The fight happened the way it happened back then. Since then, I haven't picked my opponents. I do whatever I'm asked. I fight whoever they put in front of me,” he said.
“Even though it was a loss last time that I saw Marcin, I can't be upset with that. I think that was a necessary experience. He's a great fighter, and I thank him for that experience.
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“Now we are once again close to each other in the rankings. So it just happens that we have to fight again to get to our goal. So there's no hard feelings of any kind. It's just that this is our next step.”
Spivac will face Tybura again this weekend in the main event of this weekend with the pair sitting ninth and eighth in the UFC’s official heavyweight rankings.
It’s a fight he says he is well prepared for. But, most importantly, he is clear in his mindset that he will assess what the fight gives him, then he’ll take his opportunity to win, and won’t let the memory of his defeat to Tybura four years ago affect his execution on fight night.
“We always get prepared very intensely. We always take it very seriously,” he said.
“Sometimes it's a three-round fight, sometimes it's a five-round fight, and then what happens in the fight you can never predict. Sometimes it's a submission, sometimes it's a knockout. I just let the fight dictate the pace, and I let the fight tell me what I have to do to get the victory.
“What happened (in the first fight), happened. This is just the next fight. As I said before, a loss is still a lesson that I learned. It's an experience that I’ve got. And then we do our work, we do our job, and we'll see what happens stylistically.”
How To Watch UFC Fight Night: Tybura vs Spivac 2
Spivac said that his rematch with Tybura will be a yardstick of sorts to show just how far he has progressed as a fighter since their first meeting four years ago.
“The fans saw the fight very early in my career. They tuned in then, and again, tune in now to see what the difference is between me then and me four years later. I think that's why they shouldn't miss it.”
As for how he thinks the fight will go, Spivac admitted that he’s not a fan of giving out predictions. Instead, he laid out how simply being himself will give him the best shot at success on fight night.
“It's not up to me to predict what's going to happen in the fight. This is a heavyweight fight. Anything can happen at any moment, so we'll see what happens when we get in there,” he said.
“I’m not gonna change. I'm gonna stay myself. I think that's the path to victory. It’s just to be me.
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“If you look at all of the fighters, they have a specific style that they usually dominate with. They improve, but they still stay in that style. It's very rare that you could see, let's say, a grappler become a striker, or something like that. It's not their style. They feel best in that style.
“(It’s the) same with me. You're going to see the same exact Serghei Spivac that you've always seen, and you’re happy to see every time he’s in the cage. So I’ve just improved in my own area.”
UFC Fight Night: Tybura vs Spivac 2 took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 10, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
