Rozenstruik vs. Ngannou set for UFC 249

Amber Searls-USA TODAY Sports

A heavyweight fight between Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Francis Ngannou has been added to UFC 249.

Now with the main event in place, UFC 249 looks to have added a heavyweight fight between Francis Ngannou and Jairzinho Rozenstruik to the card.

It was announced Monday that an interim lightweight title fight between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje would headline UFC 249. The event is still without a location or venue and is scheduled to take place next weekend.

The heavyweight booking between Ngannou and Rozenstruik comes after their scheduled main event fight at UFC Columbus last month was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. Rozenstruik announced on Twitter the pair will instead meet on April 18th.

Not long after that was posted, the UFC confirmed the bout:

Ngannou (14-3) is currently on a three-fight winning streak in the UFC. The Cameroonian finished two former heavyweight champions in Junior Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez last year, stopping them both in the first round. Before that Ngannou rebounded from consecutive losses to Stipe Miocic and Derrick Lewis by knocking out Curtis Blaydes in 45 seconds at UFC Beijing.

Rozenstruik (10-0) had a very active 2019 in the UFC, fighting four times. “Bigi Boi” has only improved since stopping Junior Albini in his debut, scoring three more consecutive KO wins after that. The pick of the bunch was a fifth-round KO against Alistair Overeem in December, stopping the veteran with four seconds left after losing the majority of the fight.

UFC 249 is expected to take place next Saturday, April 18th. Ferguson vs. Gaethje will headline the card. Somewhere.