Two key matchups have been booked for UFC
299, as Jailton
Almeida will face Curtis
Blaydes at heavyweight, while Mateusz
Gamrot will meet Rafael dos
Anjos at lightweight.
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The Las Vegas-based promotion confirmed the bouts on
Tuesday. UFC 299 takes place on March 9 and is headlined by a
bantamweight title tilt pitting Sean O’Malley against Marlon
Vera.
Almeida and Blaydes were initially supposed to lock horns at UFC
Fight Night 231 in Sao Paulo, but Blaydes was forced to withdraw
from the event due to injury. Instead, Almeida cruised to a
five-round verdict against Derrick
Lewis in the card’s new main event. “Maladinho” has won 15
consecutive fights, a streak that includes six triumphs in UFC
competition.
Blaydes last appeared at UFC Fight Night 222 this past April, when
he had a three-bout winning streak snapped in a first-round
technical knockout loss to Sergei
Pavlovich. “Razor” is 12-4 in the Octagon, with victories over
the likes of Tom
Aspinall, Jairzinho
Rozenstruik, Alexander
Volkov, Junior dos
Santos, Alistair
Overeem and Mark Hunt, to
name a few.
Gamrot has won six of his last seven Octagon appearances, with his
lone defeat during that stretch coming via unanimous decision
against Beneil
Dariush at UFC 280. The former KSW champ is 2-0 in 2023 with
victories over Jalin
Turner and Rafael
Fiziev to his credit.
The 39-year-old dos Anjos has competed at both lightweight and
welterweight under the UFC banner. In his last outing, the former
155-pound champion dropped a unanimous verdict to Vicente
Luque in the UFC on ESPN 51 headliner on Aug. 12.