Francis Ngannou admits he didn’t know who Jairzinho Rozenstruik was when their fight was originally booked.
Ngannou and Rozenstruik were supposed to fight on UFC Columbus and were rescheduled for UFC 249 after the event was canceled. Although this will be the third time Ngannou accepted a scrap with “Bigi Boy” he says he doesn’t even know who he is.
“I heard somebody was calling me out and I’m like, ‘Who is that?’” Ngannou said to UFC.com. “I thought it was gonna be some guy I knew, but he was a new guy.”
Ngannou says he quickly turned to Google to find out who Rozenstruik was. After some digging on the internet, he had his next fight set.
“The only thing I know about Jairzinho is that he’s the fighter who is probably the first guy who really called me out,” he said. “This guy came from nowhere; he has no name. I guess that’s why he called me out, to elevate his status. But I guess this won’t be a good idea for him. But I know I have to take him seriously, and that’s what matters to me.”
Although Ngannou didn’t know who Rozenstruik was, “Bigi Boy” is undefeated in MMA and is 4-0 in the UFC with four knockout wins. In his last fight he knocked out Alistair Overeem with just seconds left, but for Ngannou, he says that was luck.
“I saw him against Overeem, surviving for almost five rounds. Something that I know for sure is he has very high luck,” he explained. “So, you have to take that into consideration because winning that fight was just about luck. He wasn’t even close to winning that fight. This guy’s full of luck.”
In the end, Francis Ngannou is confident he’ll get his hand raised and extend his winning streak to four and earn a heavyweight title shot.
“From what I have seen, he doesn’t have much to impress me,” he concluded. “I’m not impressed with anything from him at all. The question is, how is he going to win this fight? I don’t see how he’s going to escape me.”
What do you make of Francis Ngannou saying he didn’t know who Jairzinho Rozenstruik was?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 5/8/2020.