A pair of top eight UFC heavyweights will collide in June.
ESPN was first to report the news that the No. 7 ranked heavyweight Alexander Volkov will fight No. 8 ranked Jairzinho Rozenstruik on June 4 in a five-round main event.
Volkov (34-10) is coming off a first-round loss to Tom Aspinall when the UFC returned to London last month. “Drago” has basically alternated wins and losses in his previous eight fights, with a two-fight win streak thrown in there between late 2020 and early 2021. Before the loss to Aspinall, Volkov defeated Marcin Tybura at UFC 267 on Fight Island.
Like his opponent, Rozenstruik (12-3) has alternated wins and losses in his last five. In his last outing, he was defeated by Curtis Blaydes at UFC 266 in September. “Bigi Boy” was scheduled to fight last weekend at UFC 273 against Tybura; however, the fight was canceled after weigh-ins due to Tybura falling ill.
As a result, Rozenstruik moves from the UFC 273 prelims to headlining his fourth UFC card. Not a bad move at all.
The UFC’s June 4, 2022 event does not yet have an official location, venue, or broadcast plan announced. The card currently looks like this:
- Alexander Volkov vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
- Dan Ige vs. Movsar Evloev
- Erin Blanchfield vs. JJ Aldrich
- Zhalgas Zhumagulov vs. Jeff Molina
- Joaquin Buckley vs. Abusupiyan Magomedov
- Poliana Botelho vs. Karine Silva
- Zarrukh Adashev vs. Ode Osbourne
- Andreas Michailidis vs. Rinat Fakhretdinov
