While UFC has moved beyond the APEX facility in Las Vegas for some of its signature events in recent weeks, UFC Fight Night 189 will be back in the City that Never Sleeps. The main event pits Jairzinho Rozenstruik against Augusto Sakai in a heavyweight bout. The co-headliner was supposed to feature Amanda Ribas and the former Invicta FC Strawweight champ, Angela Hill, but Ribas continues to suffer from ongoing symptoms of her COVID-19 infection. Instead, we will have two heavyweight bouts at the top of the card, as Walt Harris will tangle with Marcin Tybura in the co-main event.
Check out the full fight card as well as our online UFC betting predictions for the two signature fights.
UFC Fight Night 189: Rozenstruik vs Sakai Preview
Main Card (ESPN+)
Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs Augusto Sakai (Heavyweight)
Walt Harris vs Marcin Tybura (Heavyweight)
Roman Dolidze vs Laureano Staropoli (Middleweight)
Santiago Ponzinibbio vs Miguel Baeza (Welterweight)
Dusko Todorovic vs Gregory Rodrigues (Middleweight)
Tom Breese vs Antonio Arroyo (Middleweight)
Preliminary Card (ESPN+)
Montana De La Rosa vs Ariane Lipski (Women’s Flyweight)
Tanner Boser vs Ilir Latifi (Heavyweight)
Francisco Trinaldo vs Muslim Salikhov (Welterweight)
Makwan Amirkhani vs Kamuela Kirk (Featherweight)
Alan Patrick vs Mason Jones (Lightweight)
Manon Fiorot vs Tabatha Ricci (Women’s Flyweight)
Sean Woodson vs Youssef Zalal (Featherweight)
Claudio Puelles vs Jordan Leavitt (Lightweight)
Jairzinho Rozenstruik (11-2, 5-2 UFC, -130) vs Augusto Sakai (15-2-1, 4-1 UFC, +110) features one of the most exciting fighters from 2019 in Rozenstruik, as he moved in one year from UFC rookie to elite heavyweight contender. He delivered a KO in the second round against Junior Albini in his debut and only needed a total of 38 seconds to demolish Allen Crowder and Andrei Arlovski. He delivered a shocking knockout with four seconds remaining in a main event against Alistair Overeem — a fight in which Rozenstruik trailed badly on the cards. 2020 and 2021 have not been as kind, as he got drilled by Francis Ngannou before bouncing back to beat Junior dos Santos. When he lost to Ciryl Gane in February, though, he showed a concerning lack of activity, giving Gane time to pick him apart. Rozenstruik looks to rebound with a knockout of Sakai.
Sakai is a bit unusual for a heavyweight fighter, in that he prefers to deal in volume rather than power, which means that his opponents can take some liberties. He did knock out Marcin Tybura in just 59 seconds in September 2019, but his last win, over Blagoy Ivanov, went to the cards, and then he got finished by Overeem, as his high-volume approach wore him out during the championship rounds. Sakai is the better fighter, at least from a technical perspective, and he might be able to stack up points on the cards in the early rounds, but he has not shown main-event stamina yet.
Final Prediction:
Rozenstruik wins via knockout
Walt Harris (13-9, 6-8 UFC, +150) vs Marcin Tybura (21-6, 8-5 UFC, -170) is the next stage in Harris’ UFC evolution. He went 0-2 in his first run through the promotion, and then when he returned, Soa Palelei dismantled him. His next fight was a KO win over Cody East that put him on a run. After a 2017 defeat to Fabricio Werdum, Harris put together another four-fight unbeaten streak that featured swift KOs of Alexei Oleinik and Sergey Spivak. His last two fights have featured a loss in the second round to Alistair Overeem and another loss to Alexander Volkov. Can he rebound against Marcin Tybura?
Tybura rides in with much more momentum than Harris. He has put together a workable blend of wrestling and striking, although a streak of four losses in five fights had him on the edge of relegation. In 2020, though, he fought four times and won each of them, including convincing victories over Ben Rothwell and Greg Hardy that saw him use stamina to wear his opponents down before flipping the switch and finishing matters. His durability is still not elite, but he makes progress. Harris relies on the swift finish now, and given Tybura’s relative lack of athleticism, Harris should be able to pin him down early.
Final Prediction:
Harris wins via knockout
UFC Betting Odds
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