Curtis Blaydes taken down nine times in first round, stops Jailton Almeida in round two at UFC 299
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, March 9, 2024, for UFC 299, a 14-fight card going down from the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.
Headlining the event is bantamweight championship rematch between Sean O’Malley (17-1, 1 NC) and the only man to ever defeat him, no. 5 ranked Marlon Vera (23-8-1).
Co-headlining the event is a lightweight encounter between no. 3 ranked former interim champion Dustin Poirier (29-8, 1 NC) and no. 11 ranked Benoit Saint-Denis (13-1, 1 NC).
Headlining our UFC 299 preliminary card tonight was a heavyweight affair between no. 5 ranked Curtis Blaydes (18-4, 1 NC) and no. 7 ranked Jailton Almeida (20-3).
Blaydes had only ever lost to Francis Ngannou twice (TKO, TKO), Derrick Lewis (KO), and Sergei Pavlovich (TKO), with impressive wins over the likes of Alexey Oleinik (TKO), Mark Hunt (UD), Alistair Overeem (TKO), Junior dos Santos (TKO), Alexander Volkov (UD), Jairzinho Rozenstruik (UD), and current interim champion Tom Aspinall (TKO).
Almeida on the other hand had gone a perfect 6-0 inside the UFC with his latest two wins coming over Jairzinho Rozenstruik (rear naked choke) and Derrick Lewis (UD).
Continue reading to see how our preliminary main event went down:
Official Result: Curtis Blaydes def. Jailton Almeida via TKO (punches) at :38 of round two
Almeida absolutely mauled Blaydes through the opening five minutes, securing five takedowns just over two minutes in. He’d go on to have seven takedowns three minutes in, and nine by time round one was over.
Almeida shoots in on another takedown early on in the second, Blaydes catching him with an uppercut before unloading on a series of hammerfists that ultimately stop the Brazilian early in round two.
What a win for Curtis Blaydes! 🔥
— bjpenndotcom (@bjpenndotcom) March 10, 2024
This was looking like it was going to be an easy fight for Jailton Almeida; no one had ever done that to Curtis Blaydes before, nine takedowns in five minutes against the most successful and prolific takedown artist in UFC heavyweight history is remarkable.
When you’ve got guys like Randy Couture, Brock Lesnar, Daniel Cormier, Stipe Miocic, and Cain Velasquez amongst others, and Curtis Blaydes has more takedowns through his UFC career than any of them, that’s incredibly impressive.
But, Almeida couldn’t continue that success in round two and he was defeated for the first time in over six years, and also suffered his first octagon defeat as Blaydes gets back to his winning ways tonight at UFC 299.
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