The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday returns to ABC with a strong five-fight main card in Charlotte, North Carolina. The promotion fell back on a familiar playbook for the UFC on ABC 4 headliner: When in doubt, call in the heavyweights. At the very least, the marquee matchup between Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Jailton Almeida should result in an impressive finish in either direction. The light heavyweight co-main event also figures to end with something memorable, as Anthony Smith and Johnny Walker look to charge back into title contention. From there, welterweight uber-prospect Ian Garry gets the toughest test of his career against Daniel Rodriguez, and two of the light heavyweight division’s more interesting talents—Carlos Ulberg and Ihor Potieria—square off at 205 pounds. Throw in a pairing of violent, crafty welterweight veterans in Tim Means and Alex Morono, and this should be an enjoyable exercise on network television.
Heavyweights
#9 HW | Jairzinho Rozenstruik (13-4, 7-4 UFC) vs. #12 HW | Jailton Almeida (18-2, 4-0 UFC)ODDS: Almeida (-490), Rozenstruik (+390)
Almeida might be the heavyweight division’s most promising prospect at the moment, which makes it amusing that none of this was supposed to happen. After earning a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2021, Brazil’s “Malhadinho” figured to run roughshod over the light heavyweight division thanks to his no-nonsense approach built around wrestling and grappling. That worked to a T in a quick UFC debut against Danilo Marques, and after his next fight fell through, some late-notice shuffling led to Almeida taking what figured to be a one-off heavyweight fight against Parker Porter. Almeida looked every bit the heavyweight-level size of athlete in scoring another one-sided win on the mat, and the Brazilian has stayed at heavyweight and never really looked back. A January win over Shamil Abdurakhimov went much the same as the others—Abdurakhimov’s size was enough of a hurdle that it took the Brazilian two rounds to get the win in what was still a dominant showing—and the UFC keeps seeing how far Almeida can make his way up the ladder, with this main event against “Bigi Boy” serving as the next step.
A kickboxer out of Suriname, Rozenstruik was one of the UFC’s clear breakout fighters of 2019, debuting as a late-notice replacement that February and racking up four knockout wins to end the calendar year as a top contender. The last of those four wins, a fifth-round victory over Alistair Overeem, shows the highs and lows of Rozenstruik’s game. An overly patient counterstriker, Rozenstruik essentially accomplished nothing for about 24 minutes because he was unable to time a big moment of offense. However, he finally found his opening just shy of the closing horn, scoring a brutal knockout with just four seconds left in the fight. That has also been the tale of Rozenstruik’s career since, combining long stretches of ineffectiveness with some brutal finishes, but there is some cause for hope that he might be turning a corner, as he showed some initiative in a 23-second knockout of Chris Daukaus in December. That gives Rozenstruik more of a chance to win the race to a finish here, but it still seems likelier that Almeida can immediately initiate his wrestling and take over this fight in short order; Rozenstruik has never looked particularly good on the mat. It may take a bit longer than usual given that Almeida is still adapting to controlling men of such a massive size, but the call is that he gets there sooner rather than later. The pick is Almeida via second-round submission.
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Rozenstruik vs. Almeida
Smith vs. Walker
Garry vs. Rodriguez
Ulberg vs. Potieria
Morono vs. Means
The Prelims