UFC: Jairzinho Rozenstruik refuses to call out rivals after handing Shamil Gaziev first blemish

The Suriname fighter didn’t allow his opponent to go the distance in the UFC Fight Night main event, with the 34-year-old forced to retire at the end of the fourth round.

This was Gaziev’s first professional defeat having previously won 12 successive outings.

For Rozenstruik, this was a return to winning ways following his defeat to Jailton Almeida last May.

The 35-year-old is a UFC veteran having fought the likes of Alistair Overeem, Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane during his five-year stint with the MMA organisation.

When asked about his plans going forward, Bigi Boy refused to single out names.

He said: “When I’d like to fight next would be close to July or August.

“Who I want to fight? You know what it is. I never say a name because then when that person doesn’t have time to fight, then you’re stuck out of the game. That’s why I never called someone out.

“There’s a couple of names I didn’t face yet. For example, Tai Tuivasa, Derrick (Lewis), Serghei Spivac, and someone else, Tom Aspinall. Name it.

“But I never call someone out because I don’t want to wait on their time. I want to be in shape, come back. Who’s available? Let’s get in.”

Looking back at his victory over Gaziev, Rozenstruik added: “The fight expected it the way I expected it to go, except I didn’t think it would take that long.

“But he had a big, strong head. Eventually, we still got the job done. But it took longer than we thought (it would). … I noticed that in the third round I already kind of broke him.

“He was kind of giving up. He was late reacting to the jab. I was in there, sticking to the game plan. I was setting traps. He didn’t really go for it. I noticed that.”