The UFC returned to broadcast network ABC for UFC Charlotte on Saturday, a Fight Night card headlined by ranked heavyweights Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Jailton Almeida.
For Almeida, a surging heavyweight talent who had yet to lose under the UFC banner, the fight represented an opportunity to crack the top ten of the division, currently under the reign of Jon Jones. Rozenstruik, meanwhile, had expressed his dissatisfaction with fighting down in the rankings — and was hoping a win Saturday would land him a higher-ranked foe moving forward.
The co-main event of UFC on ABC 4 in Charlotte had originally been expected to top the card. But instead, Anthony Smith and Johnny Walker were demoted to a three-round co-feature, albeit on no less key for the 205lb weight class. A resurgent Walker had won two straight coming into the fight, and a win over a former title challenger in Smith might finally put him into the title picture, a position that had seemed almost a certainty when the Contender Series alum first broke into the UFC years ago.
Following UFC Charlotte on Saturday, May 13, 2023, tune in for the post-fight press conference to stay abreast of all the latest developments. A live stream of the proceeding is available in the embed above.
