Zlatan Ibrahimovic has got a bit of a reputation for being a football hard man.
The Manchester United striker has a black belt in Taekwondo and isn’t afraid to use it.
He’s quite fond of laying some of his acrobatic kicks onto his teammates and he dealt with this Old Trafford pitch invader rather ruthlessly.
But how would the United’s hard-as-nails number 9 really fare in a fight? We’d love to find out.
It turns out that Liverpool’s newest UFC fighter Danny Roberts, who returns to the Octagon this weekend in Manchester, wouldn’t mind finding out either.
The adopted Scouser’s ears pricked up when he heard that the United frontman was a bit of a martial arts tough guy – and so he called him out.
The welterweight said he would love to fight the Swede, who actually weighs in at 95kg and would be several weight classes above in the light heavyweight division.
‘I’d like to see him in the Octagon, see what he’s got. At the same time it would probably add a little bit more value to us and what we do.
‘So if he’s willing to fight, I’m here. I’ll make weight, any time.’
We could genuinely imagine Ibrahimovic having the balls and the bravado to take on the young welterweight and we’re not going to lie, it would be brilliant to watch.
Roberts is set for his first UFC fight on UK soil against unbeaten American knock-out merchant Mike Perry at UFC Mike Perry on Saturday night.
The powerful Liverpudlian already has two impressive victories on his UFC resume after making the step up from Cage Warriors where he laid waste to the welterweight division with his combination of lightning quick hands and solid ground game.
Perry proves his sternest test yet on the UFC 204 prelims and Roberts reckons the fight is going to be fireworks.
“Stylistically, I don’t think this fight will go the distance,” he told Fighters Only. “Perry is 8-0. He’s finished every guy that’s stood in front of him, he comes forward and he’s aggressive.
” But I see flaws. And I know how I am and how I like to exploit opponents in there. Any opportunity and I’ll jump on it. It’s not going to last, and while I am not looking past this fight, it’s just another day in the office and I’m aiming to do a job on this guy and then move onto the next one.”
The 29-year-old will be one to watch this weekend and you can see him on UFC Fight Pass.
