A heavyweight bout between no. 4 ranked contender Curtis Blaydes and no. 6 ranked Jairzinho Rozenstruik is in the process of being finalized for the main card of UFC 266, according to a report by MMA Fighting.
Blaydes (14-3) is coming off a devastating knockout loss to Derrick Lewis in their UFC Vegas 19 main event that took place several months ago in Feb. 2021.
Prior to his loss to ‘The Black Beast’, Blaydes was enjoying a four-fight winning streak and hopes to get back on track with a victory over ‘Bigi Boy’.
Rozenstruik (12-2), is coming off a buzzer-beater first round knockout victory over Augusto Sakai at UFC Vegas 28 earlier this month.
Rozenstruik got back in the win column with that victory after he suffered a unanimous decision loss to no. 3 ranked heavyweight Ciryl Gane at UFC Vegas 20, which took place earlier this year in February.
Max Holloway out of July 17 bout with Yair Rodriguez
With former UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic’s next move uncertain and Gane at the no. 3 spot in the division, it is safe to say that this heavyweight matchup is not a title eliminator.
However, the winner of this bout could certainly find themselves fighting for a spot in line to challenge UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou for the belt.
UFC 266 is headlined by Jan Blachowicz, who will be defending his light heavyweight title for the second time against Glover Teixeira in the main event.
Blaydes-Rozenstruik in the works for UFC 266