Jairzinho Rozenstruik Stops Augusto Sakai Late In Round One At UFC Vegas 28
The UFC returns to the Apex Center in Las Vegas, Nevada once again tonight, June 5, 2021, for UFC Vegas 28, going down live on ESPN+.
Headlining the event comes a heavyweight showdown between multi-time world champion kickboxer Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown belt Augusto Sakai.
Co-headlining the event came a bout also contested in the heavyweight division, this one between No. 8 ranked Walt Harris and No. 11 ranked Marcin Tybura.
Rozenstruik hasn’t seemed to be quite the same fighter since losing to Francis Ngannou around this time last year. He knocked former champion Junior dos Santos out after that, but didn’t look like a straight killer like he has prior, and he was out-pointed by fellow kickboxing champion Ciryl Gane in his last fight.
Sakai has done quite well in the UFC thus far, going 4-1 in his run (Rozenstruik is 5-2 in the UFC), but is coming off a defeat where he was TKO’d by Alistair Overeem in round five. Rozenstruik KO’d Overeem in round five of their fight, after losing the majority of it.
This is going to be a very telling fight to see who’s ready for that upper level of heavyweights.
Continue reading to see how this heavyweight encounter went down:
Official Result: Jairzinho Rozenstruik def. Augusto Sakai via KO (punches) at 4:59 of round one
Round 1
Rozenstruik comes out and takes the center immediately once the fight starts.
He’s trying to set up a big strike by throwing the right cross to the body, just like Michael Chandler likes to do. Sakai is doing a good job of evading Rozenstruik’s big strikes, but is being bullied around the cage.
Rozenstruik comes in to land a couple combinations, and with just a couple seconds left in round one he drops Sakai with a left hook. He followed it up with a couple more strikes on the ground to secure the finish.
