Augusto Sakai hopes lessons from Overeem loss repay in UFC Fight Night time 189 predominant tournament

By Christian Stein and MMA Junkie Workers |

Could perhaps also 30, 2021 11: 15 am ET

Augusto Sakai got a commerce in plans for his subsequent battle, however now he’s hoping to acquire fair appropriate thing about his 2d likelihood within the principle tournament highlight.

Sakai (15-2-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) used to be save to battle Shamil Abdurakhimov earlier this month, however that battle fell thru thanks to visa components for Abdurakhimov. As an alternate, Sakai gets a shot at Jairzinho Rozenstruik (11-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night time 189 predominant tournament on the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The card streams on ESPN+.

Sakai fought Alistair Overeem this previous September in his first UFC headliner. He got into the fifth round with the longtime heavyweight, however had fallen off within the third and fourth rounds in comparison to his success within the first and 2d. Overeem put him out with a TKO 25 seconds into the final body.

“Sadly, my winning dart used to be broken,” Sakai nowadays knowledgeable MMA Junkie. “However that’s section of the game. The evening against Overeem used to be a time for me to study. I left a few openings that Overeem used to be ready to make the most of by landing his strikes. It took me out of my approach. It used to be a principal lesson. Now we’ve made many corrections. We’re coming abet even stronger.”

The jog restrictions due to COVID-19 kept Sakai dwelling in Brazil to coach, however he talked about he found ways to fabricate that work for him in Curitiba.

Now he has one more powerful-title opponent in entrance of him in his quest to acquire abet within the hang column. His UFC tenure, after incomes a self-discipline within the promotion thru Dana White’s Contender Sequence, used to be a extreme lineup of heavyweight wins: Scoot Sherman, ragged champion Andrei Arlovski, Marcin Tybura and Blagoi Ivanov earlier than he came up brief against Overeem.

“I do know that a hang will enhance my ranking and bring on even elevated opponents,” Sakai talked about. “After the battle is executed, we’ll resolve out our subsequent steps.”

In Rozenstruik, Sakai gets a heavyweight who put himself in title rivalry with a supreme 10-0 initiate to his occupation, at the side of knockout wins in his first four UFC fights. However then he went up against Francis Ngannou in Could perhaps also 2020 and used to be knocked out in 20 seconds on Ngannou’s path to the heavyweight title.

Rozenstruik rebounded later that 12 months with a TKO of ragged champ Junior Dos Santos, however in February found himself on the rotten facet of a decision loss to Ciryl Gane, giving him two setbacks in his previous three fights after the actual birth. Rozenstruik is a gentle favorite against Sakai, and Sakai talked about the adjustment from training for Abdurakhimov used to be important.

Aloof, he’s now not thinking of any possibility however a hang.

“Jairzinho is a large tricky athlete,” Sakai talked about. “He has extremely heavy fingers. His struggling with vogue is entirely a mode of from Shamil’s. We made some changes with that in thoughts. My training sessions possess been going powerful. We’re transferring forward with paunchy drive. We’re taking a peek forward to 1 more hang.”