Francis Ngannou unimpressed by ‘lucky’ Jairzinho Rozenstruik, says only outcome is KO win

Bloodyelbow.com

Jairzinho Rozenstruik might have finished all his fights so far in the UFC, but that hasn’t been enough to impress fellow heavyweight knockout artist Francis Ngannou.

Ngannou will meet Jairzinho in the main event of UFC Columbus next month. The highly experienced kickboxer Rozenstruik (10-0) is undefeated in MMA and has won his first four UFC fights since signing for the promotion at the beginning of last year. In his most recent fight, “Bigi Boi” knocked out Alistair Overeem in the fifth round with just four seconds remaining after being down on every judges scorecard in the fight.

Talking recently to MMA Junkie, Ngannou explained why he isn’t impressed by Rozenstruik’s winning streak but despite this he’s not underestimating his opponent.

“No I haven’t seen nothing to impress me,” Ngannou said. “Regarding that fight against Overeem, I mean, he got beat up the entire fight and he got lucky at the end of the fight basically by the early stoppage. The referee, in my opinion was early and you know, he gave him the win but honestly his UFC career, nothing to impress. I haven’t seen nothing, but with that being said, it’s not to underestimate him because he was a kickboxer and he has some good hands so he knows the striking game. Now lets find out what he knows about MMA.”

Much like his opponent, Ngannou (14-3) has recently found himself on some good form in the octagon. Consecutive losses against Stipe Miocic and Derrick Lewis have since been forgotten about after knocking out Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos. Those last three fights for Ngannou have lasted a total of just 2 minutes and 22 seconds combined.

“The only way I see the fight going is me knocking him out,” Ngannou said. “Round 1 or Round 2, I don’t know so I hope he’s good enough to pass Round 1 because Round 1 I’ll just take to set up.”

UFC on ESPN 8: Ngannou vs. Rozenstruik takes place on March 28th at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.