Francis Ngannou not impressed with Jairzinho Rozenstruik ahead of UFC Columbus headliner

Francis Ngannou wants another opportunity to fight for the UFC heavyweight title, but to get that shot, he’ll have to get through the surging Jairzinho Rozenstruik.

The heavyweight clash will headline UFC on ESPN 8 on March 28. The event takes place at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

“The Predator” has finished his last three fights in a little over two minutes of combined Octagon time, including back-to-back knockout wins over former UFC heavyweight champions Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos.

Rozenstruik burst onto the scene in 2019, picking up four finishes in a little over 10 months time. Most recently, “Bigi Boi” knocked out Alistair Overeem with just seconds remaining in the main event of UFC on ESPN 7 in Washington, DC.

Despite Rozenstruik’s meteoric rise, Ngannou hasn’t been impressed with his UFC Columbus opponent, as he stated in a recent interview with MMA Junkie.

“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 let’s find out what he knows about MMA.”

When MMA fans saw this fight announced, the vast majority doesn’t see the clash between Ngannou and Rozenstruik going the full 25 minutes. With both fighters posting a 100-percent finishing rate inside the Octagon, that seems to be a safe bet, and one Ngannou is in full agreement with.

“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.”

Who takes the UFC Columbus headliner between Francis Ngannou and Jairzinho Rozenstruik?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 2/25/2020.