Jairzinho Rozenstruik won't make callout after UFC Fight Night 238, but admits obvious candidates
LAS VEGAS – Jairzinho Rozenstruik has maintained a consistent rule throughout his career: No call outs.
However, “Bigi Boy” isn’t going to ignore the obvious options, particularly not now. Following his UFC Fight Night 238 main event win Saturday over Shamil Gaziev, Rozenstruik (14-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC) only has a handful of fresh matchups in the upper echelon of the division.
“When I’d like to fight next would be close to July or August,” Rozenstruik told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a post-fight news conference at the UFC Apex. “Who I want to fight? You know what it is. I never say a name because then when that person doesn’t have time to fight, then you’re stuck out of the game. That’s why I never called someone out. There’s a couple of names I didn’t face yet. For example, Tai Tuivasa, Derrick (Lewis), Serghei Spivac, and someone else, Tom Aspinall. Name it. But I never call someone out because I don’t want to wait on their time. I want to be in shape, come back. Who’s available? Let’s get in.”
Rozenstruik has fought ranked fighters since his third UFC appearance. He’s won and he’s lost. The mindset is always to take one step at a time and Saturday’s win moved him in the right direction. Regardless of what’s next, he’s happy with his win, a TKO after Gaziev (12-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) told his corner between the fourth and fifth rounds that he struggled to see.
“The fight expected it the way I expected it to go, except I didn’t think it would take that long,” Rozenstruik said. But he had a big, strong head. Eventually, we still got the job done. But it took longer than we thought (it would). … I noticed that in the third round I already kind of broke him. He was kind of giving up. He was late reacting to the jab. I was in there, sticking to the game plan. I was setting traps. He didn’t really go for it. I noticed that.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 238.