Jailton
Almeida will be going from a grappler to a striker on a month’s
notice.
Per Ag.
Fight on Monday, Curtis
Blaydes will no longer be competing in the headliner of UFC Sao
Paulo, also known as
UFC Fight Night 231. In his stead will be Derrick
Lewis (27-11, 1 NC), who will be stepping in on short notice
against Almeida (19-2). The reason for Blaydes’ withdrawal has not
yet been made public. News of this change in the heavyweight
headliner on Nov. 4 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has since been
confirmed by multiple
outlets.
Lewis saw his career-long three-fight skid come to a crashing halt
in July when he smashed Marcos
Rogerio de Lima in 33 seconds. This marked his first win since
2021, with stoppage losses to Tai
Tuivasa, Sergei
Pavlovich and Sergey
Spivak along the way. With his speedy finish of Rogerio de
Lima, Lewis reestablished himself as the UFC’s knockout king, with
14 victories via strikes in his storied tenure with the
company.
Since joining the UFC off the 2021 season of Dana White’s Contender Series, Almeida has been
a man possessed in the cage. Stringing together five straight
stoppages – none taking place any later than 2:56 of Round 2 – the
Brazilian officially moved back to heavyweight against Parker
Porter in 2022. Each of the last three triumphs for
“Malhadinho” have earned him “Performance of the Night” checks.
UFC Fight Night 231 goes down at the Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao
Paulo, Brazil, on Nov. 4. The remainder of the card’s lineup is not
official, but bouts expected on the main card include a
welterweight scrap between Gabriel
Bonfim and Nicolas
Dalby, a heavyweight slugfest pitting Rodrigo
Nascimento against Don’Tale
Mayes and clash between 185-pounders Caio
Borralho and Abusupiyan
Magomedov.