Some releases the UFC made in the past few years have surprised the MMA community; however, this one was particularly shocking.
At UFC Vegas 113, the #8 heavyweight contender, Jailton Almeida, was defeated by unanimous decision against Rizvan Kuniev.
It would be back-to-back losses for the Brazilian after his previous contest ended with a split decision loss to Alexander Volkov at UFC 321.
Five days after the ranked fighter failed at the APEX, the UFC parted ways with the Brazilian and released him from the heavyweight roster, despite his 8-3 UFC record.
Almeida’s UFC career
‘Malhadinho’ earned himself a UFC contract after winning on Dana White’s Contender Series (DWCS) in September 2021, beating Nasrudin Nasrudinov by second-round submission.
The 34-year-old then debuted at UFC Vegas 47 in a light heavyweight bout, winning by first-round TKO against Danilo Marques in February 2022.
Almeida competed two more times that year, securing two successive first-round submission wins over Parker Porter at heavyweight and Anton Turkalj in a catchweight of 220 pounds.
The BJJ black belt then became a recognised rising star after stopping Shamil Abdurakhimov by second-round TKO at UFC 283 to enter the heavyweight rankings, before submitting knockout artist Jairzinho Rozenstruik in the first round at UFC Charlotte.
The Salvador-born mixed martial artist was touted as a dangerous prospect, and his biggest challenge began when he went face-to-face with Derrick Lewis at UFC Sao Paulo.
But, Almeida comfortably won by unanimous decision after five rounds as his grappling dominated the battle while avoiding any powerful strikes from the ‘Black Beast’.
The hype train of the Brazilian eventually came crashing when he took on #5 contender Curtis Blaydes at UFC 299.
The submission artist suffered a second-round TKO loss to the American, marking his first loss in the UFC in six years.
Almeida bounced back with two first-round stoppages with a submission win over Alexander Romanov at UFC 302, before defeating Serghei Spivac by TKO at UFC 311.
At this point, Malhadinho was on eight wins and one loss in the UFC with a total of seven stoppages; overall in his MMA career, he had only gone the distance once.
At UFC 321, the 34-year-old’s clash with Volkov was treated as a heavyweight title eliminator, with the winner likely to get the next shot at becoming UFC Champion.
In a very close call, the Russian appealed enough to the judges to win by split decision, before another Russian fighter’s win brought Almeida’s UFC career to an end.
Why was Almeida released by the UFC?
While there is no clear reason the Brazilian was cut from the UFC, there are some implications that help explain the decision.
Almeida was a dominant grappler and would always look to take his opponents to the ground, very rarely striking on the feet.
His matchup with Volkov, for example, proved to be the case as Almeida only landed nine significant strikes while landing seven takedowns throughout three rounds.
Despite this statistic being rather bizarre, it clearly didn’t provide any entertainment for the crowd, as fans were unhappy with the contest, finding it boring.
Another reason is Almeida’s limited game plan in the Octagon: if he faces anyone with good takedown defence, he is in trouble.
At UFC 299, the Salvador-born fighter took down Blaydes nine times in the first round, but once the #5 contender defended the first takedown in round two, it led to a TKO win for the Illinois mixed martial artist.
The same could be said for Almeida’s battle with Kuniev: he attempted a takedown eight times but couldn’t bring him down, so he resorted to weaker strikes, which didn’t pay off.
Almeida will strive to improve his MMA game and become a stronger challenger, either by making a bid to return to the UFC or by displaying dominance in a different promotion.