A pivotal heavyweight bout between Curtis Blaydes and Jairzinho Rozenstruik is targeted to take place at UFC 266.
According to MMAFighting, Blaydes and Rozenstruik have verbally agreed to face one another on September 25 at UFC 266 at a location TBD. Contracts have not been signed as of yet.
Curtis Blaydes (14-3) is coming off a KO loss to Derrick Lewis back in February. Prior to that, he was on a four-fight winning streak with wins over Alexander Volkov, Junior dos Santos, Shamil Abdurakhimov and Justin Willis. His two other losses are by TKO to Francis Ngannou in his UFC debut in 2016 and then in 2018. He does hold notable wins over Alistair Overeem, Mark Hunt, and Aleksei Oleinik. Blaydes is also currently ranked fourth in the heavyweight division.
Jairzinho Rozenstruik (12-2) returned to the win column last time out with a first-round KO win over Augusto Sakai in the main event of UFC Vegas 28. Prior to that, he dropped a decision to Ciryl Gane back in February. He’s currently 2-2 in his last four with his other win a TKO victory over Junior dos Santos and a KO loss to Francis Ngannou. He started out his UFC tenure 4-0 with KO wins over Alistair Overeem, Andrei Arlovski, Allen Crowder, and Junior Albini. He’s currently ranked sixth at heavyweight.
The winner of Blaydes-Rozenstruik will likely put themselves in a position to be in a number one contender bout. The loser, meanwhile, will likely have to fight someone outside of the top-10 as they look to protect their spot in the heavyweight ranks.
With the addition of Curtis Blaydes vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik, UFC 266 is as follows:
- UFC Light Heavyweight Championship Bout: Jan Blachowicz (c) vs. Glover Teixeira
- Curtis Blaydes vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
- Jessica Andrade vs. Cynthia Calvillo
- Uros Medic vs. Jalin Turner
- Merab Dvalishvili vs. Marlon Moraes
Who do you think will win, Curtis Blaydes or Jairzinho Rozenstruik?
