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A two-division Ultimate Fighting Championship threat has
decided on his proper weight class after wins in both
categories.
After two impressive wins in different weight divisions of light
heavyweight and heavyweight, against Danilo
Marques and Parker
Porter, respectively, Jailton
Almeida (16-2) has decided his path. “Malhadinho” will be
remaining at the highest weight category, and his next matchup
comes on Sept. 10 in Las Vegas against Shamil
Abdurakhimov (20-7). A win would propel the Brazilian into the
top 15, and Almeida spoke to Sherdog about his upcoming fight on
Wednesday.
“I talked to my manager and we decided to stay in heavyweight,”
Almeida explained, “a division where I don’t need to lose weight
and have the advantage of being faster than most of my
opponents.”
Almeida’s last appearance came as he weighed in at a svelte 224
pounds, and despite his foe Porter maintaining a 41-pound advantage
over him, Almeida handled Porter on the mat before tapping him with
a rear-naked choke. His next challenge against Russian grappler
Abdurakhimov may be a significant step up in ranked competition,
and Almeida is excited to be put to the test.
“I respect Russian fighters a lot,” Almeida stated. “As I said
before, [Khamzat] Chimaev and [Khabib] Nurmagomedov are my favorite
fighters. Facing a Russian always motivates me to train more.”
While his fight with Porter came on short notice, Almeida is taking
this next camp extremely seriously. A full 10 full weeks will go
into it in order to reach his peak.
“Shamil is really experienced and already faced some of the tougher
guys of the division. I’ll be prepared for a war, but I have no
doubt my hand will be raised by the end,” the Brazilian confidently
expressed.
The son of a former professional boxer, “Malhadinho” started
training at the age of six. When he turned 11, Almeida began to
learn jiu-jitsu as well. The Brazilian picked up his black belt in
2018, after being considered among the best brown belts in his
state of Bahia. Before winning a contract with UFC by submitting
Russia’s Nasrudin
Nasrudinov, Almeida had strung together an eight-fight win
streak with eight first-round finishes. As he worked his way up the
Brazilian scene, Almeida impressed matchmakers by tapping out
former UFC fighters Ednaldo
Oliveira and Ildemar
Alcantara within two rounds.
While Almeida is coming into their matchup with great momentum
behind him, the 40-year-old Abdurakhimov is bringing the opposite.
The Russian has suffered three consecutive knockouts dating back to
2019, falling victim to strikes from Curtis
Blaydes, Chris
Daukaus and Sergei
Pavlovich. The 10-fight UFC veteran has picked up wins over
names including Andrei
Arlovski, Marcin
Tybura and Walt Harris
since joining the organization in 2015.