A battle of top ten heavyweight strikers set for June 4th
UFC heavyweight contenders Alexander Volkov and Jairzinho Rozenstruik are scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night on June 4th, UFC officials told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto.
Volkov is currently ranked 7th in the division, one spot ahead of the 8th ranked Rozenstruik. Volkov is coming off a main event loss to Tom Aspinall at last month’s UFC London. Rozenstruik is coming off a loss to Curtis Blaydes at UFC 266 back in September 2021.
Russia’s Alexander Volkov started his professional MMA career competing under the M-1 Global banner. After a solid run in the promotion, he eventually found his way to Bellator in 2012. After wins over Brett Rogers and Vinicius Queriroz in his first two fights, Volkov squared off with Rich Hale for the vacant Heavyweight World Championship, a fight he won by unanimous decision. He ended up losing the title, and was ultimately cut from the promotion after consecutive losses to Tony Johnson and Cheick Kongo.
Volkov signed with the UFC in 2016 and won his promotional debut against Timothy Johnson in November 2016 via split decision. He holds UFC wins over Roy Nelson, Stefan Struve, Fabricio Werdum, and Alistair Overeem, among others. Volkov will look to implement his reach and his striking prowess against the KO artist Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
After starting his career as a kickboxer, Jairzinho Rozenstruik made his professional MMA debut in May 2012. He won his first six pro fights before signing with the UFC, where he made his debut against Junior Albini and won via TKO. Rozenstruik followed that up with victories over Allen Crowder, Andrei Arlovski, and Alistair Overeem, all by way of knockout. Since then, he’s gone 2-3, with his only stoppage loss coming at the hands of heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. All five of Rozenstruik’s UFC wins have come via KO or TKO stoppage, and he’ll look to get back to his winning ways on June 4th against Alexander Volkov.
Rozenstruik was scheduled to fight Marcin Tybura at UFC 273 last weekend, but Tybura withdrew due to illness and the matchup was called off at the last minute.