The heavyweight fight everyone wanted to see is official. Francis Ngannou meets Jairzinho Rozenstruik in the UFC Columbus headliner on March 28.
HUGE main event set for #UFCColumbus!
🇬🇭 @Francis_Ngannou 🆚 @JairRozenstruik 🇸🇷
🎟️➡️ Tickets on sale Jan. 31 pic.twitter.com/wKB5HiCpyA
— UFC (@ufc) December 15, 2019
Ngannou is on a three-fight winning streak, having last defeated former champion Junior dos Santos by TKO back in July.
Rozenstruik, meanwhile, is coming off the biggest win of his career when he came from behind to knock Alistair Overeem out with just four seconds remaining at UFC DC earlier this month.
“Bigi Boy” — who welcomed the prospect of facing Ngannou in the past — called “The Predator” out soon after and has now got his wish as the two knockout artists are set to collide.
However, the oddsmakers see there being only one winner.
You can check out the opening odds below:
- Francis Ngannou: -350
- Jairzinho Rozenstruik: +275
That means you would have to bet $350 to win $100 on Ngannou, while a $100 stake on Rozenstruik would win you $275.
At first glance, these odds are pretty surprising.
Ngannou is a bigger favorite against Rozenstruik than he was when he faced the likes of dos Santos and Curtis Blaydes in their rematch. In fact, Ngannou was given the same opening odds against Rozenstruik as he had when his 2017 fight with Andrei Arlovski was announced.
Given that this is a heavyweight affair, putting some action on Rozenstruik — notably undefeated with a 10-0 record — would certainly be worth a punt.
Here are the opening odds for the pair’s last five fights:
Francis Ngannou last five fights
- vs. Junior dos Santos (W): -230
- vs. Cain Velasquez (W): +130
- vs. Curtis Blaydes (W): -155
- vs. Derrick Lewis (L): -230
- vs. Stipe Miocic (L): -160
Jairzinho Rozenstruik last five fights
- vs. Alistair Overeem (W): +105
- vs. Andrei Arlovski (W): -170
- vs. Allen Crowder (W): -175
- vs. Junior Albini (W): -140
- vs. Andrey Kovalev (W): N/A