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History · 2021 · UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Gastelum · Alexandr Romanov vs Juan Espino
From the tape · 17 Apr 2021

Alexandr Romanov vs Juan Espino

UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Gastelum · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Result

Alexandr Romanov beat Juan Espino

Method
Decision - Split
Round
3 of 3
Clock
1:05
HeavyweightMain cardReferee · Mark Smith

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

Red corner AlexandrRomanov“King Kong”
VSOn the tape
JE
Blue corner JuanEspino“El Guapo”Las Palmas, Canary Islands
Heavyweight3 rounds17 Apr 2021
The story going in
  • Comes in on a 2-fight win streak.
  • Comes in on a 2-fight win streak.
  • Carries 14 points more striking defence than Espino.
  • Averages 4.4 more takedowns per 15 minutes than Romanov.
18-3
Record
11-2
−10 yr30
Age
40
6' 2"
Height
+1″6' 3"
75″
Reach
+5″80″
Southpaw
Stance
Orthodox
2
UFC bouts
2
2/2100% of wins
Finishes
2/2100% of wins
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

3 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Alexandr Romanov5 sig landed
HEAD0%0 of 4BODY20%1 of 1LEGS80%4 of 4
Juan Espino4 sig landed
HEAD50%2 of 3BODY25%1 of 1LEGS25%1 of 2
5 of 9
Sig.
strikes
4 of 6
1 of 1
Take-
downs
2 of 2
2:18
Control
1:28
Distance 1Clinch 4Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 2Clinch 1Ground 1
Judges · this round · Romanov firstDave Hagen10–9Chris Lee9–10Tony Weeks10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Alexandr Romanov27 sig landed
HEAD85%23 of 40BODY11%3 of 3LEGS4%1 of 1
Juan Espino6 sig landed
HEAD83%5 of 12BODY0%0 landedLEGS17%1 of 1
27 of 44
Sig.
strikes
6 of 13
1 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 1
3:20
Control
0:45
Distance 7Clinch 2Ground 18
Where it
happened
Distance 4Clinch 2Ground 0
Judges · this round · Romanov firstDave Hagen10–9Chris Lee10–9Tony Weeks10–9
Round 31:05 of actionEnded 1:05
Alexandr Romanov0 sig landed
HEAD0%0 landedBODY0%0 landedLEGS0%0 landed

No significant strikes landed

Juan Espino2 sig landed
HEAD50%1 of 2BODY50%1 of 1LEGS0%0 landed
0 of 0
Sig.
strikes
2 of 3
0 of 1
Take-
downs
2 of 2
0:03
Control
0:42
Distance 0Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 1Clinch 1Ground 0
Judges · this round · Romanov firstDave Hagen9–10Chris Lee9–10Tony Weeks9–10

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Split Decision

Referee · Mark Smith
Alexandr RomanovJuan Espino
Official totals — Alexandr Romanov first
JudgeTotal
Dave Hagen2.0 avg spread · 45% wide29–28
Chris Lee2.0 avg spread · 44% wide28–29
Tony Weeks2.1 avg spread · 49% wide29–28

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 8 scored, Alexandr Romanov first · unofficial

Jay Pettry Sherdog.com29–29
Tyler Treese Sherdog.com29–29
Rob Tatum CombatPress.com28–29
Jillian DeCoursey CombatPress.com28–29
Keith Shillan Sherdog.com28–29
MM AJunkie.com28–29
MM AMania.com28–29
Tristen Critchfield Sherdog.com28–29

Fan vote · unofficial

29-28 Espino · 73%29-28 Romanov · 14%30-28 Romanov · 2%

255 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Alexandr Romanov

4.49takedowns / 15 min
4.49 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
8.93 / 15m
8.16 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
11.45 / 15m
55%
ACCURACY
78%
0.90 / 15m
SUB ATT
2.40 / 15m

Juan Espino

8.93takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (5.77 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Heavyweight

The market story

What the market did on the way to the cage — the price, not our model. This bout is settled; the window below is closed.

We hold no market price for this bout — no captured price series, and no opening or closing line in the sportsbook record we fall back on. So there is nothing to show, and we would rather show nothing than draw a line that was never there.

Alexandr Romanov vs Juan Espino.

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