UFC 252: Jairzinho Rozenstruik TKOs Junior dos Santos to get heavyweight title bid back on track
- ‘Bigi Boy’ stops teammate in second round as he bounces back from 20-second KO by Francis Ngannou
- ‘I hope Francis gets the chance after the fight tonight [between Miocic and Cormier] … if Francis gets the title, I want a rematch,’ Rozenstruik says
“Bigi Boy” is back, in a big way.
Jairzinho Rozenstruik (11-1) helped erase the memory of his 20-second KO at the hands of Francis “The Predator” Ngannou (15-3) in May with a second-round TKO of former heavyweight champ Junior dos Santos (21-8) at UFC 252 on Saturday night.
“That’s the mission, to fight for the title,” the 32-year-old from Suriname told Joe Rogan in his post-fight interview. “I hope Francis gets the chance after the fight tonight [between Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier] … if Francis gets the title, I want a rematch.”
“I know I’m a dangerous guy in the division. Everybody ranked above me right now, I’m fighting,” he later added.
It was an awkward build-up to the fight at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas for the teammates at American Top Team, and relations wouldn’t have been helped when Rozenstruik caught Dos Santos flush with a low blow at the end of the first round.
The 36-year-old Brazilian had been out to show he wasn’t done yet, following back-to-back losses. He had managed to last a little bit longer than Rozenstruik against the fearsome Cameroonian Ngannou – 41 seconds longer, to be precise – in June 2019, but then suffered a second-round TKO by No 3-ranked Curtis “Razor” Blaydes (14-2, one no contest) in January.