Solid step up in competition for Almeida. I favor him, but not by much; this could end up being where ends up getting derailed and it wouldn't overly surprise me. Rozenstruik's defensive grappling is a bit underrated. He stuffed half of Blaydes's takedowns, kept Curtis from advancing position or raining down any sort of punishing GnP, and caught him with a nasty intercepting knee during a second round double-leg attempt that could have easily led to a doctor's stoppage given more time. Gane went 2 for 14 on TDs against Jairzinho, with Rozenstruik fending off his lazy back-take/RNC attempt pretty easily. Reem went 2 for 10 on takedowns, but he was able to hold Jairzinho on his back for an extended period when he did get him down.
Jailton likes to run out and meet his opponent in the center and throw a wild strike or two prior to shooting. In his last outing he got cracked hard by Shamil off a caught kick for doing so. That kind of opening frame could lead to him getting killed by Jairzinho who has the death touch. Almeida got one-punched and knocked out cold sixteen seconds into the first round back on the regional scene, though that was a while ago.
In any case, I'll hesitantly back Almeida to get Rozenstruik down and finish him on the mat inside of two rounds. I think his shots are sufficiently well-timed and set up that he'll inevitably take Jairzinho down. Bigi Boy sometimes looks a bit like a fish out of water off his back and tends to go into a defensive shell when guys put pressure on him standing. That said, Rozenstruik's size advantage, potential ability to explode back to his feet like Shamil did, and his power & timing to exploit Jailton's questionable striking tendencies all worry me.
All in all, even if Jailton passes this test I'm still not sold on him at Heavyweight.
