Jairzinho Rozenstruik talks Augusto Sakai matchup at UFC Vegas 28

Heavyweights Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Augusto Sakai headline UFC Vegas 28 on Saturday at Apex.

Video transcript

KEVIN IOLE: Hey folks. I am Kevin Iole. Welcome to Yahoo Sports. And my guest now, if you like big puncher's, you're going to be watching UFC Vegas 28 on Saturday over at Apex. We've got Augusto Sakai who is a big knockout artist going in. This may be the biggest knock out artist this side of Francis Ngannou. Of course I'm talking about Jairzinho Rozenstruik. How are you, champ? How's it going?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: Good. Good. How are you?

KEVIN IOLE: I'm great. This is a big fight for you coming off a loss and also for Augusto Sakai. I got to imagine this is going to be kind of a big stand up battle. Mentally, does that get the juices flowing when you know that the guy on the other side of you is looking to get in there and just throw bombs with you?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: Nah, I think it's going to be a stand up fight. But on the other hand, he may be changed something. Because he's also a grappler. But for me, mostly I want to fight and be prepared for wherever he want to go.

KEVIN IOLE: You're both coming off losses. You're 11 and two in your career. You certainly have had more success than you have had the other way. But when you come off a loss, what is the mindset? Does it change the way you think of things compared to when you're on a roll and you're undefeated? I mean, how does the mindset come?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: Yeah, it does change things for me. Mostly it's I want to see what happened. I'm thinking, what happened in the last fight? I don't understand. So I've been training harder, been working much harder try to find openings to see. And I watched the last fight over and over again. It isn't my style. It was a strange fight. So I've been working hard. I've been hard for myself. And I want to go in there this Saturday and just let it go. And just for myself I want this win and this badass performance. So--

KEVIN IOLE: You lost two of your last three. For people who don't know, you lost to Francis Ngannou last year at UFC 249 and then to Ciryl Gane a couple of months ago. And to me, I look at him. The Francis Ngannou fight, you go and you fight your fight. You go in there and you're firing punches like you do. And he caught you. That happens when you're fighting a big knockout puncher. And you referenced that you said you watched the Cyril Gane fight over and over.

To me, whether you win or lose, that just wasn't the Jairzinho that I came to know and love in the fight. What do you think since you watched it so many times, what do you think happened that led you maybe away from your normal game plan?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: I'm couldn't find what happened. But I'll have the moment all the time like, oh, why did I do this? Why did I do that? So that was the hardest part. You see the openings, and you look at the fight. I see the improvement too with a lot of things, different things like my ground game, my take down defense. And yeah. I don't know. It was crazy. It was crazy.

KEVIN IOLE: I know Dana White wasn't thrilled with Cyril's performance in the fight. But I thought if you give Cyril credit and I wonder if this caused you any issues. It seemed like he had really good footwork in that fight. And he was able to kind of move a lot and create angles for you that-- did you feel like they were problems?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: No. I mean, he does his thing. He's playing the cat and mouse game, the cat and mouse game. And he succeeded then. I think in the next fight between me and him, I'll do much better and it wouldn't end this way.

KEVIN IOLE: Are you a guy that you have to fight for confidence? Sometimes when you're on a roll, you believe you can beat Godzilla? And then when you're not, are you one of those guys that your confidence fluctuates and you have to work on that as much as on your technique in the ring?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: The confidence? I'm always confident. And I have the technique. It's that fight, it was really strange I tell you. I don't know what happened in there. And yeah. Even in the fight, I was like, what's happening? Come on. I was talking to myself. OK, let's go. And it couldn't. It didn't. So yeah. Was a really bad day and a off day.

KEVIN IOLE: So now you go up against Augusto Sakai. And he's probably going to try to cat and mouse against you a little bit too because he knows your power. But he's also a guy that's looking to knock people out. You fought Alistair Overeem. That was his opponent the last time. What did you see when you looked at his fight with Overeem that you think you can take advantage of?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: I mean, one of the biggest thing is the cardio. The cardio is one of the biggest thing. And I have the cardio that I don't think people can beat. So if the fight takes long, I think I will take advantage of that 100%. I can dictate the pace and I don't get tired.

KEVIN IOLE: Yeah. I mean, when I was thinking of how this fight goes, and one thing I was going to say was bet the under because both of these guys and then they might get tired. But then I remembered, hey, you went five rounds with Overeem. And you drop him and knock them out late in the fight. Has that been something you've always had? Or has it been a conscious decision to work hard on your cardio? Have you always been a guy that can go, go, go?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: It's always my strongest part because my coach always says, if you're losing on gassed out, you're not ready to fight. So that's one thing we always work hard about. The gas tank has to be there.

KEVIN IOLE: Do you feel pressure in this fight? I mean, because in the UFC, they're so competitive. If you lose two in a row and three or four-- do you feel like, I know Dana likes your style of fighting. But do you feel pressure to get that win to go back out the rankings and not have your job-- have to look over your shoulder?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: I don't feel any pressure. But I put the pressure on myself because I really want this win. Doesn't matter how. I want to go in there and win my fight. And that's it. Yeah.

KEVIN IOLE: I wonder how Francis won the heavyweight title by beating Stipe Miocic, he had lost to Stipe before. Do you take anything from that? Hey, you had a couple setbacks in your career. Now do you look at Francis, hey, he had a major setback and he got back and won the title? Do you look at it and say the same? I can travel the same path and I can do the same thing that he did?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: I can say that. But I don't see it as that. I always want to do the best in what I do. People say that to me like, look at Francis. Look at this. Look at that. They lose many fight, then they came back, they train hard. I take that as advice. But I'm a guy, I'm hard on myself. And I want to go in there and I want to get the best of myself. And I want to win my fight. If you're not winning, something's wrong. That's my motto.

KEVIN IOLE: Sure. With that big power that you have, Jairzinho, even if you have a bad night, you can win fights. Do you find have you ever hit anybody with your good shot and they took it and kept coming? Have you ever had that in any fight where, hey, man I landed my best shot and he's still standing there?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: Not yet.

KEVIN IOLE: Not yet, huh? Even in the streets? I know you were a pretty good street fighter when you were a kid, weren't you?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: Yeah, I was. But not yet. [INAUDIBLE]

KEVIN IOLE: OK. All right. So who do you think, one punch, punches harder, you or Francis?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: Nah. I didn't try myself the hardest punch. But I know he hits hard, Francis. And yeah. We will see in the future. I hope I meet him again.

KEVIN IOLE: We might see that. Very good. Well, let's let you go with this. Where do you feel like you go if you get a win over Augusto Sakai? Kind of what's the game plan for you? How quickly do you want to come back? And is there anybody that you're going to call out should you be successful on Saturday?

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: Right now win this fight is the most important thing. And after that, we will see what's going to come. I want to make sure I get back in the top three, top four. So after this fight, I'm going to see what's going to come. And I'm going to get sit down with my team and see what the best move is.

KEVIN IOLE: One of the best guys to watch in UFC. If you like knockouts, you like this guy Jairzinho Rozenstruik. He will be in the main event against Augusto Sakai on Saturday over at Apex. It's on ESPN Plus. Jairzinho, thank you, pal. Best of luck to you.

JAIRZINHO ROZENSTRUIK: Thank you, Kevin. No problem.

KEVIN IOLE: Thanks so much.