Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs Ciryl Gane Pick: UFC Vegas 20 Predictions

By Clint MacLean Feb 23, 2021

Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs Ciryl Gane Pick – UFC Vegas 20 Predictions: Rozenstruik comes into this Saturday’s bout with Ciryl Gane with a 5-1 record in the UFC, with all 5 wins cashing on the ‘Inside the Distance’ prop for +5.43 units in his UFC career. On Saturday, Rozenstruik is lined at +275 to win ‘Inside the Distance’ against the French-born heavyweight Gane.

If you want more picks for UFC Vegas 20, check out the entire DieHardMMA Podcast for this week’s UFC event.

Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs Ciryl Gane Odds

UFC Vegas 19 was one of the wildest nights of MMA we have seen in a long time. Lots of fun fights, back and forth wars, big upsets, and spectacular finishes. We can expect more of the same from UFC Vegas 20 as the UFC has put together another card full of rag-tag fighters who you may not be familiar with but who are extremely hungry. The main event of UFC Vegas 20 is a direct sequel to UFC Vegas 19’s as two UFC Heavyweight division contenders looking to establish themselves as contenders will go to war in the small cage for our entertainment.

The Fighters: Rozenstruik vs Gane

Biggi Boy Jairzinho Rozenstruik is on the shot list of the UFC’s power tier list. The only fighters who might be above Jairzinho when it comes to raw power are Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis. Rozenstruik has serious kickboxing credentials that so far have translated pretty well into the UFC. As a professional kickboxer, Jairzinho was 76-8-1, with 64 of his 76 wins coming by way of knockout. This is a man who is not to be taken lightly, and as we saw in his fight with Allistair Overeem, he can change the course of a fight at any moment. 

Cyril Gane is a freak of nature. This man is 250 lbs, big, and long, but somehow he moves like a 135er. The ability of Gane to flow in the cage is a sight to see. Much like his opponent Cyril Gane has a history in kickboxing; however, he has far less in the way of experience. Gane was 7-0 as a kickboxer, and 5 of his seven wins came by knockout, and while that is impressive, it isn’t even close to what Jairzinho has accomplished. What makes Gane special is his ability to mix his grappling with his striking. Gane is fully capable of mixing takedowns into his offense, and he is a submission threat like few heavyweights in the modern UFC are. 

The Match-Up: Rozenstruik vs Gane

This fight is extremely interesting to me. We have another spot where we have UFC Heavyweights fighting in the small cage at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. So far, we have seen that fights at the Apex are more violent than we are used to due to the fighters being confined and having less space to maneuver. At the lower weight classes and for the women, this may not hold true, but it is exceptionally true for the heavyweights due to the men’s size in the fight. There is nowhere to run. 

So far in the UFC, only one man has successfully stood and traded with Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and that was Francis Ngannou, who ended the fight in a matter of seconds. While Cyril Gane is a very impressive prospect himself, I do not put him on the level of Francis Ngannou in the area of raw power. Gane will have to be aware that he is dealing with one of the top 3 hardest hitters in the game today and cannot go shot for shot. This leads me to believe that Gane is going to take a page from Alistair Overeem’s book and look to grapple with Jairzinho. The issue here is that I don’t know that Gane can take down Jairzinho consistently for 25 minutes. While Jairzinho is a striker by nature, he has improved his ground game enough to keep himself safe while on the mat, and he is capable of getting back to his feet. Allistair Overeem found out the hard way that Jairzinho is still deadly in the closing seconds of a 25-minute fight, and I am worried that Gane doesn’t have the takedowns in his arsenal that Overeem did. 

Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs Ciryl Gane Pick:

UFC Vegas 20 Main Event Best Bet – Jairzinho Rozenstruik (+225 via Bet365): Both men are coming off of knockout wins over former UFC champion Junior dos Santos and have been matched up with one another to see who the real contender is. While Cyril Gane is an extremely hot prospect, we cannot ignore the fact that he is swinging upwards here. Gane has seven professional kickboxing fights to Jairzinho’s 80+ fights. Gane has 7 MMA fights to Jairzinho’s 12. While Gane has been facing Don’Tale Mayes and Raphael Pessoa’s likes, Jairzinho Rozenstruik has been facing Andrei Arlovski, Alistair Overeem, and Francis Ngannou. I don’t like the glaring hole in Jairzinho’s game, and I feel like Gane should be the side here being just a little bigger and just a little longer with the ground advantage, but at the same time, we saw just this past week what a power puncher could do when he knows his opponent is looking to take them down. I cannot lay this price on Gane, and I have to think this is a dog or pass spot. 

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