CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — UFC heavyweight Jairzinho Rozenstruik knocked out a KO finish under 30 seconds in his last fight against Chris Doukas in December of 2022.
On Saturday at UFC Charlotte, Jairzinho Rozenstruik (13-4) will face Gilton Almeida in his fifth UFC main event. Rozenstruik spoke candidly on Wednesday at Media Day.
First of all, we didn’t want to fight. Rosenstruck answered candidly when asked about his initial thoughts on his fight with Almeida.
“Because my team and I discussed right away, we had a good win, we want to fight someone higher in the rank. And the UFC really wanted to fight, so the fights happened.” Jairzinho expressed that he does not shy away from fighting Almeida specifically, and that he did not feel the UFC owed him anything for fighting an inferior opponent and added, “It’s not like I’m doing the company a favor but that’s what it is. You’re looking forward to life, right.” So? You want to move on.”
“So, I see that as the bigger picture: win this fight, get me ready and then move on with a higher ranked opponent.”
When asked to name a fight he’d like to fight in the division, Rosenstruck said he was just focused on fighting on Saturday, but eventually settled on saying “I think there’s only two guys in the top 10 or top five, so it’d be Tom Aspinall or Ty Toivasa.” That’s the name, I think. All the other guys, I’ve already fought.”
Jairzinho’s opponent, Jailton Almeida’s last fight earlier this year, was in the heavyweight division, but he will fight in the light heavyweight division in 2022.
“I definitely think there would be a size difference — probably not. Because it would probably cut a lot of weight to go to light heavyweight.” Rosenstruck said of his opponent, Almedia, who weighed in at 232 pounds. in his last battle.
Rozenstruik revealed that he’s been cruising around 270 pounds and when he’s at camp he naturally starts losing some weight. Jairzinho also reiterated that weight classes and large weight tolerances are a factor that should always be taken into consideration. “But a big guy against a (naturally smaller) guy like that, sometimes it can make a difference.”
Watch the full media appearance on UFC Charlotte by Jairzinho Rozenstruik above.