Jairzinho Rozenstruik returns to action this weekend to headline his sixth main event for the UFC. The first main event for ‘Bigi Boy’ was in December 2019, when he took on Alistair Overeem. An interesting post put out by an account on Twitter pointed out that with six, Rozenstruik has headlined more events than the likes of Sean O’Malley, Islam Makhachev, among others.
Headlining a UFC event is an opportunity that only a select few in the UFC get. Be it a PPV event or just a fight night card, the UFC always puts its biggest draws on top of the card to attract a bigger audience. This is an opportunity that champions such as Islam Makhachev and Sean O’Malley have gotten multiple times in their career. However, there is one fighter who has headlined more UFC events than Rozenstruik- Jon Jones.
The only champion with the same amount of main events as Rozenstruik is Leon Edwards who also has six main events to his name.
Jairzinho Rozenstruik has more UFC main events than every champion except Jon Jones: pic.twitter.com/RA1nLXNbvZ
— Fury’s Fight Picks (@LucaFury) February 27, 2024
Islam Makhachev and Alex Pereira followed this, who have 5 and 4, respectively. Rising stars such as Ilia Topuria and Sean O’Malley have two main events in their name. Rozenstruik’s last main event was in May last year when he took on Jailton Almeida. However, he came up short in that fight.
However, it is interesting to note that all the cards that Rozenstruik has headlined have been fight night cards. While that does not diminish his accomplishments, he will have to put on consistent performances to back his persona.
Coming back to his upcoming fight, a lot more than headlining a record number of main event is at stake. Rozenstruik would like to get a victory to come back into the title picture.
A closer look at Jairzinho Rozenstruik v Shamil Gaziev
‘Bigi Boy’ returns to the octagon after nearly a year off following his recent loss against Jailton Almeida. The Surinamese fighter was stopped in the very first round of the fight by Almeida, who secured a rear-naked choke to get the win. The loss against Almeida was Rozenstruik’s third loss in five fights, which is concerning to say the least.
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This weekend, ‘Bigi Boy’ takes on an extremely well-rounded fighter in Shamil Gaziev. The 34-year-old is extremely skilled on the ground and also has legitimate knockout power as well. Both his fights in the UFC thus far have not gone the distance. Therefore, Rozenstruik will have his work cut out for him if he wants to bounce back and get back into the win column once again.
