Ilir Latifi is making a big career change in hopes of turning things around.
Latifi will move to heavyweight for his next bout, according to his team. Although Latifi never has missed weight at light heavyweight, he is coming off back-to-back losses for the first time in his career, against Corey Anderson and Volkan Oezdemir, respectively.
Latifi (14-7 MMA, 7-5 UFC) fought his first two professional bouts at heavyweight in 2008, a no contest vs. current UFC fighter Blagoy Ivanov and a knockout win over Roman Mihocka. Latifi then made the move down to light heavyweight in 2009 and has competed at 205 pounds ever since.
Latifi’s last win came in early 2018, when he scored a “Performance of the Night” submission win over Ovince Saint-Preux. But since then, the 36-year-old has suffered back-to-back losses. He most recently was knocked out by Oezdemir in August at UFC on ESPN+ 14.
Latifi alluded to some news coming soon on Instagram.
UFC's Ilir Latifi moving back to heavyweight for first time in over 10 years