Jailton Almeida is “mentally undefeated” in the UFC Heavyweight division.
Call it what you want, the Brazilian prospect’s hype train came to a halt in his last fight at UFC 299 as Almeida was pulverized by a series of short punches from Curtis Blaydes, suffering his first official UFC loss. The TKO stoppage occurred in the second round after much success from Almeida, who was able to pick up nine takedowns on Blaydes in the first frame of the fight. The feat is all the more impressive given the fact Blaydes has only been taken down once in the last seven years.
Still, Almeida’s one trick in the grappling department would eventually be figured out with Blaydes turning it around with effective ground and pound while defending a desperate takedown attempt.
Almeida wasted no time in getting back into the Octagon, taking up a fight with Alexandr Romanov at UFC 302 this weekend from Newark, New Jersey. Ahead of the action, “Malhadinho” mulled over his last fight against Blaydes and how the setback strangely enough doesn’t feel much of a defeat, at all, and why that is.
“I didn’t feel like it was a loss, even though it was recorded as one on paper,” Almeida told BJPENN.COM’s Cole Shelton. “Personally, I don’t feel like it was a loss. The reason being is that I simply needed to implement a better strategy, even though I felt like I had a great fight, but I just felt like I started perfectly. However, I felt like I got precipitated eventually and I began to slow down. I began to be more patient and cautious.
“Against Romanov, I will have a better strategy and I feel stronger now. A true champion needs to lose to learn where they can improve.”
Jailton Almeida (20-3) started off his UFC career with a perfect 6-0 record, running through the heavyweight division with ease until he met Blaydes at UFC 299, that is. On the same card is where we saw UFC Bantamweight Champion Sean O’Malley defend his title in Miami against Marlon “Chito” Vera – a rematch of their first fight which ended by TKO stoppage in 2020.
O’Malley (18-1) was also an undefeated upstart in the UFC like Almeida at the time of his first encounter with Vera and maintained his undefeated record, even in defeat to Vera, due to a perennial nerve in one of his legs giving out en route to the stoppage.
Almeida’s fight with Blaydes couldn’t be more different than O’Malley’s but the headspace thereafter can definitely be compared along with both fighters thinking they were up on the scorecards before a TKO struck. Reflecting on the setback to Blaydes, Jailton Almeida is sure to have learned something from his fight with Curtis Blaydes, even if it’s not counted a loss, and we’ll see just how much he took away in his potential rebound against Alexandr Romanov at UFC 302.
