A heavyweight fight between Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Augusto Sakai has been announced as the headliner for UFC Fight Night 189 on June 5th.
Sakai had previously been booked to fight Shamil Abdurakhimov on May 1st, but visa issues led to his opponent having to withdraw from the bout and so now he’ll go up against Rozenstruik a month later in a higher-profile bout.
Sakai will surely be pleased with the good fortune of having landed a main event spot despite having lost his last fight against Alistair Overeem by TKO in the fifth round back in September of 2020.
Sakai had made a name for himself before that though by going on a four-fight winning streak after joining from the Contender Series in 2018, defeating Chase Sherman, Andrei Arlovski, Marcin Tybura and Blagoy Ivanov along the way.
As for Rozenstruik, he is also coming off a loss, having dropped a unanimous decision verdict against Ciryl Gane in February.
Before that Rozenstruik had bounced back from a KO defeat against Francis Ngannou by TKO’ing Junior dos Santos, and overall now holds an 11-2 record, leaving him ranked No.6 in the division, three spots above Sakai.
Rozenstruik vs. Sakai fronts a UFC Fight Night 189 card that also features further heavyweight action between Walt Harris and Marcin Tybura in addition to Ilir Latifi vs. Taner Boser.
