UFC APEX – Heavyweight Jairzinho Rozenstruik has spent his 8 months away from the octagon rounding out his game as he prepares to headline against Shamil Gaziev at UFC Vegas 87 on Saturday night.
“Focusing on my skillset. Specially taking some wrestling and jiu jitsu classes so it becomes a habit,” Rozenstruik told reporters on Wednesday.
“In the beginning it feels like that (frustrating), but while you’re doing it you’re going to start embracing it. I’m at that point.”
Should we expect Rozenstruik to go for a takedown right away?
“Maybe. I don’t know,” he said with a smile.
Rozenstruik (13-5) will face Gaziev who comes into the fight with an 12-0 undefeated record. Rozenstruik plans to change that on Saturday night.
“He has a perfect record. You’ve got to take him serious, 12-0, it’s not that not doing nothing. This weekend he’s going to get to the test,” Rozenstruik said.
“I want to win so I go in there and get my hands raised. After the fight I don’t know how he’s going to deal with that.”
Rozenstruik has had some tough luck lately going 2-3 in his last five bouts he still holds the #12 ranking in the division. That alone keeps him in a possible title run with some luck, but it must begin against Gaziev at UFC Vegas 87.
“After this Saturday win I’ll take a couple of steps back because I feel like in my UFC career I made a couple mistakes. Couple of missteps I navigate a little bit away (from) my power so I’m focusing on getting all the puzzle pieces together,” he said.
“I feel my real, real power again. I want to get back close to July, August.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Jarizinho Rozenstruik above. He headlines UFC Vegas 87 against Shamil Gaziev on Saturday.
