Rozenstruik looks to hand Cyril Gane first loss

Jairzinho Rozenstruik will look to become the first man to defeat Cyril Gane when the two heavyweights meet in the main event of a UFC Fight Night at the APEX Facility in Las Vegas on the morning of Sunday 28 February 2021.

Rozenstruik (11-1) comes into the fight on the back of a second round TKO victory over Junior dos Santos at UFC 252 in August 2020 – a statement bounce-back after his first professional career defeat (coming at the hands of Francis Ngannou) three months prior.

The 32-year-old Surinamese, nicknamed ‘Bigi Boy’, is happy to have this match brought forward to headline, replacing the original main event of Dominick Reyes v Jirí Procházka which was delayed due to an injury to the former.

“It’s better to have your own card than to fight under somebody else’s card,” the third-ranked heavyweight Rozenstruik said. “Five rounds is fine with me, it’s the main event so it feels good. Fighting two weeks earlier, two weeks later; it doesn’t matter. I mean I’m in the camp already, I’m already in a little bit of shape, so it wasn’t that hard. It was an easy decision to make.”

He added, “I’m going to need another fight. I want to be busy, and learn from the best. There’s a lot of fighters that I passed. I just skipped the line because I win my fights. But I’m ready to face everyone.”

Gane, meanwhile, boasts an unbeaten record of 7-0 and his last victim was also Junior dos Santos: the 30-year-old Frenchman defeated the Brazilian with a second-round TKO at UFC 256 back in December 2020.

Gane, after a difficult 2020 in which opponents were hard to come by, feels he has now established himself as a legitimate top 10 heavyweight and is looking to keep his head down and let the result speak for themselves.

“I suck it up, for real. I stay positive and always maintain a good mindset. I stay focused on training and that’s it,” said the Frenchman, who added: “The people [ranked] ahead of me don’t want to deal with me because I’m young and I don’t have a great deal of experience, so it’s not a good deal for them.”

The rest of the main card features a light heavyweight co-main between Magomed Ankalaev and Nikita Krylov; Montana De La Rosa will look for a return to winning form when she faces fellow women’s flyweight Mayra Bueno Silva; Randy Brown faces Alex Oliveira in the welterweight division; bantamweight hopeful Pedro Munhoz faces Jimmie Rivera; and the card opens with a featherweight match between Alex Caceres and Kevin Croom.

UFC FIGHT NIGHT: ROZENSTRUIK VS. GANE – MAIN CARD

- Main event: Heavyweight: Jairzinho Rozenstruik v Cyril Gane

- Co-main: Light heavyweight: Magomed Ankalaev v Nikita Krylov

- Women’s Flyweight: Montana De La Rosa v Mayra Bueno Silva

- Welterweight: Randy Brown v Alex Oliveira

- Bantamweight: Pedro Munhoz v Jimmie Rivera

- Featherweight: Alex Caceres v Kevin Croom