Gregory Rodrigues is the UFC 304 fighter to watch

UFC 304 takes place on July 27 at the Co-op Live Center in Manchester, England. It is widely known that the main stars of the show will be the two British champions, Leon Edwards and Tom Aspinall. Paddy Pimblett is a solid star in the United Kingdom who is an up-and-comer at lightweight, getting a lot of attention ahead of the fight card. There is one fighter who is fighting on the card that should be getting much more attention, as he has solid potential. Gregory Rodrigues is a Brazilian middleweight stepping in on a month's notice to take on up-and-coming British prospect Christian Leroy Duncan.

Rodrigues is primarily a striker who is a six-foot-three machine who loves to come forward and is willing to take shots to give shots to put opponents away. He is durable as he is tough to put away and has only been knocked out by some heavy hitters such as Brunno Ferreira and Jordan Williams. He has a good ground game and is an eight-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion. Though Rodrigues does not use it a lot, his ground game solidifies himself as a well-rounded prospect. He trains at Kill Cliff FC, which is a good gym with skilled training partners such as Brendan Allen, Vicente Luque, and Gilbert Burns.

The fighting background of Rodrigues began in BJJ, and even some Olympic wrestling got mixed in. Rodrigues began professionally competing in MMA in 2014, where he fought in different Brazilian organizations. He went 7-2, winning by three knockouts and three submissions, until he won the SMASH Global middleweight title in Dec 2019 against Brandon Hester. That was good enough at the time for Rodrigues to earn a shot at a UFC contract in Dana White's Contender Series. He ended up losing to Jordan Williams by first-round knockout in September 2020, eliminating himself from the series at the time.

Rodrigues did not give up though, as he went to compete at Legacy Fighting Alliance, where he got two knockout victories within three months to earn himself the middleweight title in May 2021. He earned himself another shot at becoming a UFC fighter when he got called to step in two weeks' notice as a late replacement to face Duško Todorović. Rodrigues won the fight by unanimous decision, winning all three rounds and winning a spot on the UFC roster, in June 2021. He got a second-round knockout victory over Park Jun-yong, where both fighters received a Fight of the Night bonus on Oct 2021. Despite losing a split decision to Armen Petrosyan in Feb 2022, he finished 2022 off strong with knockout wins over Julian Marquez, earning Performance of the Night, and Chidi Njokuani, earning Fight of the Night.

Ferreira, a hard-hitting middleweight with potential, knocked out Rodrigues in one round at UFC 283 in January 2023 for his UFC debut. That was a brutal knockout, but Rodrigues bounced back again when he knocked out Denis Tiuliulin in one round at UFC 292 in August 2023. He started a new year in February 2024 with a third-round stoppage over Brad Tavares in a fight that should have gotten a Fight of the Night bonus. At that point, Rodrigues solidified himself as a knockout, pressure-heavy machine whose opponents better hope they have elite power to take him out early. If they cannot take him out early, they will likely have to work to win, hence why split decisions are a main method of Rodrigues losing.

Christian Leroy Duncan will look to stop the hype train of Gregory Rodrigues

Rodrigues has a great opportunity to shine at UFC 304. His opponent, Duncan, is a 28-year-old British up-and-comer who loves to go for knockouts. This is the first time both middleweights will be on a PPV main card. Rodrigues has a winnable matchup in front of him, as Duncan does not have one-punch knockout power, is not a fan of being pressured as it leads him to wrestle, and likely has durability that has not been tested with the power he possesses. If he wins spectacularly, Rodrigues can gain more fans and possibly get a shot at the middleweight rankings. With all the potential he possesses, Rodrigues is the fighter to watch for at UFC 304.