Sergei Pavlovich is considered one of the biggest hitters in a heavyweight division full of them, but Jairzinho Rozenstruik has an advantage going into Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 250 showdown.
Rozenstruik (15-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) meets Pavlovich (17-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) at RNC Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (ESPN+) in a matchup of top 10 heavyweights. Both men trained together for three years at American Top Team before going in separate directions, but those memories aren’t forgotten.
Although Rozenstruik respects the power of Pavlovich that once led him to a six-fight first-round knockout streak in the octagon, he is confident in his ability to render is useless.
“The thing with power is, you’ve got to land to show it,” Rozenstruik said at UFC Fight Night 250 media day. “If you can’t land it, you have no power. … Sparring is fighting. We don’t want to kill each other, but you have to do it as a fight. He might have changed a lot. He changed gyms. He might change some technique and change some things. As soon as the fight starts it might be another thing, because there’s no right or wrong in fighting.”
Rozenstruik described himself as “relaxed” going into fight night, and he is coming off back-to-back victories over Tai Tuivasa and Shamil Gaziev. For Pavlovich, he is fighting to keep his head above water after dropping consecutive bouts to Tom Aspinall and Alexander Volkov.
The heavyweight division is still waiting to see how things play out in a potential title unification bout between Aspinall and Jon Jones. So when Rozenstruik considers the significance of his bout this weekend, he thinks it’s for a prominent position to face whomever may be the undisputed champion once the weight class is settled.
“A win this Saturday would definitely put me in the top five,” Rozenstruik said. “I’m looking to fight one more time and then looking up to the title conversation.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 250.
