Jailton Almeida doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s getting a fair shake.<\/p>\n
At UFC 321 this past October, Almeida found himself being heavily criticized in a losing effort against Alexander Volkov. Almeida had finished seven of his eight UFC victories heading into that bout, but dropped a decision to Volkov after scoring seven takedowns and grounding Volkov for nearly 11 minutes.<\/p>\n
Almeida returns to action in a short-notice clash with Rizvan Kuniev this Saturday at UFC Vegas 113. He has made adjustments in training following the defeat, only his second in 10 UFC bouts, but feels that some criticism of his performance was unfair.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see that a lot of people talked about [the fight], saying they didn\u2019t like it, that it was boring and all that, but they say that because I\u2019m Brazilian, right?\u201d Almeida told MMA Fighting. \u201cIf it were a foreigner everyone would like it. But life goes on. No matter what, we move forward. A lot of people who are talking wish they were where I am today. That\u2019s how it is. We\u2019re going to get criticism and praise. That\u2019s life, and that\u2019s why we choose this sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almeida believes other UFC fighters with similar styles, especially wrestling-heavy athletes from Russia, often get a pass for similar performances.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t absorb what the public says,\u201d Almeida said. \u201cI only listen to my coaches, my family, my wife. I don\u2019t even listen to my own relatives when they talk about me because a lot of people wish they were living the moment I\u2019m living today, my life. I\u2019m happy. I still haven\u2019t been able to achieve some of my dreams, but just being in the UFC is already a dream. There are a lot of people out there fighting to get into the UFC and they can\u2019t. I\u2019ve already had 10 fights in the UFC, and I\u2019m very happy with what\u2019s happening in my life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf one day the UFC says they don\u2019t want me anymore, I\u2019ll be very satisfied with what I did, what I didn\u2019t do, what I lost, what I gained. That won\u2019t change my life at all. Those who know me know my story. I wasn\u2019t supposed to be an athlete today, I was supposed to be a drug dealer, following the path of my brother, but fortunately God put me on the right path and today I\u2019m here, living this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old heavyweight admits, however, he didn\u2019t feel \u201ccomfortable enough to execute\u201d some moves against Volkov in their October bout, like when Volkov managed to sweep him on the ground to reverse position.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a lot of details where I could have taken risks,\u201d Almeida said, \u201cbut my mind froze at that moment, it glitched, and it just didn\u2019t happen. That\u2019s how it is. There were some things about the fight that I liked too, but unfortunately I was supposed to come out with the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMalhadinho\u201d returned to his native Salvador, Brazil, and rewatched the match twice. Although he admits it wasn\u2019t his best showing, Almeida still feels he should have won the fight after controlling Volkov in rounds two and three.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut since it was in Abu Dhabi, close to [Russia], with his crowd all there, it would\u2019ve been awkward for him,\u201d Almeida said. \u201cIf it were in the United States, I would obviously be winning that fight. If it were in Brazil, I would have won that fight. But that\u2019s how it is. I think it was how God wanted it to be, that loss for me. We\u2019re going to keep moving forward on the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
His UFC Vegas 113 opponent was originally paired up against Ryan Spann in Las Vegas, and Almeida says nobody wanted to fight Kuniev because he\u2019s too tough and well-rounded for an unranked opponent. Kuniev finished Hugo Cunha at Dana White\u2019s Contender Series to earn a deal with the UFC, but dropped a split decision against Curtis Blaydes in his debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe went after the takedown in his fight with Renan \u2018Problema\u2019 [Ferreira in PFL],\u201d Almeida said. \u201cI think he\u2019s probably training for this fight with that in mind too since [Spann] had zero ground game. We\u2019ll see how the fight plays out. I\u2019ve already shown some of my striking too, everyone saw that. If you give me the chance, I\u2019ll clinch and take you down. But if he defends the takedown, then we\u2019re going to trade shots on the feet and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jailton Almeida doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s getting a fair shake. At UFC 321 this past October, Almeida found himself…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-460825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}