Less than 2½ years ago, Jairzinho Rozenstruik was an undefeated UFC heavyweight on the rise. At that same time, Alexander Volkov was on a hot run during which he won seven of eight fights.
Since then, both have lost several bouts against the division’s top contenders. They each are coming off a defeat.
But Volkov and Rozenstruik are still in the top-10, and they meet on Saturday in the main event of a matinee UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas, with the winner solidifying his spot in the heavyweight hierarchy.
Volkov (34-10) has dropped two of his last three fights, most recently a submission at the hands of Tom Aspinall in March. The Russian is No. 8 in the ESPN heavyweight rankings.
The 10th-ranked Rozenstruik (12-3), who also has lost two of his last three, last fought in September, when he lost a unanimous decision to Curtis Blaydes.
Saturday’s fights at the UFC Apex are on ESPN+, with the main card at 4 p.m. ET and prelims at 1.
How to watch the fights
Stream the fights on ESPN+: Download the ESPN App
Don’t have ESPN+? Get it here.
There’s also FightCenter, which offers live updates for every UFC card.
Saturday’s UFC fight card
ESPN+, 4 p.m. ET
Heavyweight: Alexander Volkov vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
Men’s featherweight: Dan Ige vs. Movsar Evloev
Men’s featherweight: Michael Trizano vs. Lucas Almeida
Women’s flyweight: Poliana Botelho vs. Karine Silva
Light heavyweight: Alonzo Menifield vs. Askar Mozharov
Strawweight: Felice Herrig vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz
ESPN+, 1 p.m. ET
Lightweight: Alex Da Silva vs. Joe Solecki
Men’s featherweight: Damon Jackson vs. Daniel Argueta
Men’s flyweight: Zarrukh Adashev vs. Ode’ Osbourne
Lightweight: Benoit Saint Denis vs. Niklas Stolze
Men’s bantamweight: Tony Gravely vs. Johnny Munoz
Men’s flyweight: Zhalgas Zhumagulov vs. Jeff Molina
Welterweight: Andreas Michailidis vs. Rinat Fakhretdinov
Women’s flyweight: Erin Blanchfield vs. JJ Aldrich
Ian Parker’s betting tip
“This should be an interesting fight between two methodical strikers who each possess KO power and are hard to finish. … Rozenstruik should have the power advantage here; however, due to his counterstrike style, I don’t expect him to throw too much early on, as he will be extremely cautious of the potential takedown attempts of Volkov. … Volkov tends to throw a good amount of volume, but will be hesitant to engage due to the power of Rozenstruik.”
For Parker’s main event pick and advice for betting other fights on Saturday’s card, check out the ESPN+ expert picks and best bets article, published on Thursday. It also features analysis by Erick Nicksick, coach at Xtreme Couture, and betting expert Reed Kuhn.
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Alexander Volkov to fight Jairzinho Rozenstruik at UFC Fight Night on June 4