Surinamese heavyweight striker Jairzinho Rozenstruik’s lackluster main event vs. Ciryl Gane back in February is not deterring the UFC from making him a headliner again.
MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz reports that Rozenstruik will take on Augusto Sakai in a five-round fight on June 5th. Sakai was supposed to fight Shamil Abdurakhimov on May 1st but obviously that’s been scrapped.
Rozenstruik (10-2) made an immediate splash in the UFC with his knockouts of Junior Albini and Allen Crowder. After quickly wiping out former champ Andrei Arlovski, Rozenstruik took the step up to main event against Alistair Overeem and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a lip-splitting KO in the closing seconds of the final round. Against Francis Ngannou, Rozenstruik was KO’d in 20 seconds but bounced back by stopping Junior dos Santos. The Gane fight definitely happened and he definitely lost.
Sakai (15-2-1) saw his undefeated UFC record come to an end against Overeem back in August. The Brazilian started well but steadily faded as Overeem asserted his dominance on the ground, ultimately losing by fifth-round TKO. He has knockout wins over Chase Sherman and Marcin Tybura, as well as split decisions over Andrei Arlovski and Blagoi Ivanov.
UFC rankings have Rozenstruik #6 and Sakai at #9, so yeah this is indeed a matchup between top-10 heavies.
Other notable matchups for this UFC Fight Night card include Ilir Latifi vs. Tanner Boser, Walt Harris vs. Marcin Tybura, Miguel Baeza vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio, and Muslim Salikhov vs. Francisco Trinaldo. No venue or broadcast details have been announced.
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