Francis Ngannou wants another shot at the UFC Heavyweight title, but to earn the opportunity he’ll have to get through Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
The two men are scheduled to headline UFC on ESPN 8 on March 28, 2020. The event takes place at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
Francis Ngannou has finished his last 3 fights in a little over 2-minutes of combined Octagon time, including back-to-back knockout victories over former UFC Heavyweight champions Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos.
Jairzinho Rozenstruik emerged onto the scene in 2019, picking up 4 finishes in a period of less than 11 months. In his recent win, “Bigi Boi” knocked out Alistair Overeem with just a few seconds remaining in the final round of their main event scrap at UFC on ESPN 7 in Washington, DC.
Despite Rozenstruik’s rapid rise, Ngannou isn’t impressed with his next opponent. Francis Ngannou talked about it in a recent interview with MMA Junkie.
“No I haven’t seen nothing to impress me,” Ngannou said. “Regarding that fight against Overeem, I mean, he got beat up the entire fight and he got lucky at the end of the fight basically by the early stoppage. The referee, in my opinion was early and you know, he gave him the win but honestly his UFC career, nothing to impress. I haven’t seen nothing, but with that being said, it’s not to underestimate him because he was a kickboxer and he has some good hands so he knows the striking game. Now let’s find out what he knows about MMA.”
Many fans don’t see this Heavyweight clash between Ngannou and Rozenstruik going the full 25 minutes. Both men post a 100% finishing rate in their wins inside the Octagon, so it seems to be a fairly safe bet, and one Ngannou agrees with.
“The only way I see the fight going is me knocking him out,” Ngannou said. “Round 1 or Round 2, I don’t know, so I hope he’s good enough to pass Round 1 because Round 1 I’ll just take to set up.”
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 26th February, 2020.
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