Sergei Pavlovich’s Outlook After 2025
Sergei Pavlovich entered 2025 looking to reset after the first two consecutive UFC losses of his career: a first-round knockout by Tom Aspinall in their interim heavyweight title fight at UFC 295 in November 2023, followed by a unanimous-decision defeat to Alexander Volkov in June 2024. On January 28, 2025, the UFC published an interview about Pavlovich’s effort to keep moving forward ahead of his scheduled bout with Jairzinho Rozenstruik in Riyadh.
Pavlovich described the Volkov loss as emotionally difficult because the fight did not go as planned, but said his task was to do his work and improve. He also explained that having his hand raised after a fight would feel like a reward for the preparation behind it.
Watch: The official UFC post-fight interview with Pavlovich after UFC Saudi Arabia covers his return to winning form. It is hosted directly on UFC.com, and the linked page provides the promotion’s player. The old clip is a historical career snapshot, not footage from his 2025 or 2026 bouts.
Pavlovich delivered the result he wanted on February 1, 2025, defeating Rozenstruik by unanimous decision. The UFC event report records the win. It was a measured performance over three rounds, a different kind of outcome from the first-round knockouts that had defined Pavlovich’s rise. The win ended the losing streak and restored momentum, though one victory did not by itself settle where he stood among the division’s leading contenders.
He followed it with another unanimous-decision victory, this time over Waldo Cortes-Acosta at UFC Fight Night in Shanghai on August 23, 2025. That result made it two wins in a row and extended the recovery beyond a single rebound fight. Pavlovich then returned to a finish in Macau on May 30, 2026, stopping Tallison Teixeira with strikes 39 seconds into the first round. The UFC athlete record lists those results alongside his earlier losses to Aspinall and Volkov.
The progression helps put the “positive approach” theme in perspective. After setbacks against two of the division’s most dangerous heavyweights, Pavlovich first won a decision, then repeated the result against another established opponent, before returning to his finishing form. That sequence does not prove that a fighter’s mindset alone caused the results; training, tactics, opponent styles and the demands of each bout all matter. It does show that his 2025 intention to move on from the Volkov defeat was followed by sustained success.
For readers revisiting the January 2025 story, the central point is that Pavlovich entered the Rozenstruik fight focused on the work in front of him rather than on his previous losses. The later results show that he rebuilt his record with wins in three successive UFC appearances through May 2026. His original statements were about process and motivation; the victories are the concrete evidence of how his comeback unfolded.
