Surging heavyweight contender Jairzinho Rozenstruik scored the biggest win of his combat career last night (Sat., Dec. 7, 2019) at UFC on ESPN 7 live on ESPN from inside Capital One Arena in Washington D.C., when he finished former UFC title challenger Alistair Overeem via fifth-round knockout.
Rozenstruik, who was filling in for Walt Harris, was coming off a first-round knockout win over former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski this past November. Many people believed he was going to be a legit contender in 2020, but nobody guessed he’d go out and stop Overeem in the fashion that he did.
But just because Rozenstruik ended up winning his main event spot at UFC D.C. doesn’t mean things went according to plan. “Bigi Boy” was down on all three judges’ scorecards entering the fifth and final round and needed a stoppage to remain undefeated in his professional MMA career. Luckily for Rozenstruik, he was programmed to never give up and ultimately took what he wanted to take inside of the cage.
“I never heard of giving up, I always fight for what I want” – @JairRozenstruik reflects on his last-second finish at #UFCDC pic.twitter.com/MTsHdbQiUW
— UFC News (@UFCNews) December 8, 2019
“My corner was calling me out all the time like ‘hey, you need to work more,’” explained Rozenstruik after the fight (shown above). “I see him stepping back like he was tired and I faked him and I put out the right hook,”
“It feels great. I’m happy with this,” he continued. “I know I have to work more and I’m ready to go back into the gym, do what I have to do, and make sure I keep winning in 2020.
“I never heard of giving up, I always fight for what I want. And this is one of the things I want and I showed heart in there that I really want to win this fight. I keep believing in myself.”
Rozenstruik, 31, is now one of the hottest fighters in the sport. He has compiled a 4-0 UFC record since his debut back in February and has been one of the most successful fighters of 2019. Heck, he may even be in the running for Fighter of the Year, but I think we all know who’s getting that.
Rozenstruik, who suffered little damage against Overeem, will look to parlay this win into a matchup with heavyweight crusher Francis Ngannou sometime in early 2020.
