Jailton Almeida returns to heavyweight, faces Shamil Abdurakhimov at UFC 283
Following back-to-back cancelled bouts, it appears we have the return of Brazilian heavyweight and light-heavyweight phenom Jailton Almeida (17-2), as he’s slated to face Shamil Abdurakhimov (20-7) at UFC 283.
UFC 283 is to go down on January 21, 2023, live from the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The event is to be headlined by a vacant UFC light-heavyweight championship affair between former champion Glover Teixeira and no. 7 ranked Jamahal Hill.
It is also to be co-headlined by a title fight, this one coming in the flyweight division between champion Deiveson Figueiredo and interim champion Brandon Moreno, the fourth time these two will have fought.
But first, we’ll watch Jailton Almeida and Shamil Abdurakhimov go at it earlier on in the evening.
This is the third time these two have been booked opposing one another, and Almeida has had two failed bookings against Maxim Grishin down at 205 lbs as well; he only made his UFC debut in February of 2022.
His luck with keeping opponents hasn’t been the best to him, but that hasn’t kept him from going 3-0 this year.
Jailton Almeida is an absolute prodigy. We first got notice of him on the Contender Series, where he absolutely mauled a 9-0 opponent en route to a second-round finish (rear naked choke).
Since then, as mentioned above, he’s gone 3-0, having defeated Danilo Marques (TKO) at 205 lbs, Parker Porter (rear naked choke) at heavyweight, and then undefeated Anton Turkalj (rear naked choke) back down at 205 lbs.
This BJJ black belt is as athletic as they come, and he’s incredibly skilled everywhere the fight goes, but especially on the ground in top position. Almeida has secured all 17 of his wins via finish (6 knockout, 11 submission), and he aims to keep that trend going at UFC 283 when he faces Abdurakhimov.
No. 15 ranked UFC heavyweight contender Shamil Abdurakhimov was once a very feared man in his division. He initially went 5-2 within the promotion, up until his recent three fight losing skid.
The most recent victory of his career comes over Marcin Tybura, who’s gone 6-2 since losing to him. But Abdurakhimov would lose to Curtis Blaydes, Chris Daukaus, and Sergei Pavlovich in his latest three appearances, all via knockout.
There’s really no shame in losing to any of them; Blaydes and Pavlovich are both in the top five right now on lengthy win streaks, and Daukaus was looking like the next big thing at the time they fought.
However, the 41-year-old Russian contender will have to really show up and take it to Almeida if he wants to defeat the 31-year-old Brazilian prodigy, because that’s been proven incredibly difficult to do.
Since opening his career up with a record of 5-2, Almeida has since won his last 12-straight fights, ten of them coming in the opening round, with the other two making it to the second before his opponents were forced to submit.
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