With his fight at this weekend’s UFC Vegas 64 falling through, Jailton Almeida has quickly been rebooked with a former would-be opponent.
Almeida (17-2) had been expected to face Maxim Grishin in a 220lb catchweight affair this Saturday in Las Vegas. However, with Grishin out and no suitable opponent secured to take his place, Almeida will instead face Shamil Abdurakhimov (20-7) as part of the UFC’s January 14, 2023 Fight Night show UFC 283 in Rio.
Hopefully. Almeida and Abdurakhimov have been booked opposite one another twice before. The pair were originally scheduled to face off at UFC 279 in September, but Russia’s Abdurakhimov encountered visa issues that kept him out of the event. Rescheduled for UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi, Abdurakhimov again withdrew from the fight.
UFC officials announced the third booking of the pair on Tuesday, in a statement to their official website. After initially announcing the date as January 14, 2023, the statement was later corrected to list the fight for UFC 283 the following week.
“Due to visa issues, Maxim Grishin has been removed from his catchweight bout with Jailton Almeida. As a result, Almeida will now face Shamil Abdurakhimov in a heavyweight bout on UFC 283 on January 21, 2023.”
Abdurakhimov has lost three straight, to Curtis Blaydes, Chris Daukaus, and Sergei Pavlovich.
UFC 283 takes place at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on January 21, 2023. The following fights have been reported for the card:
- Deiveson Figueiredo (c) vs. Brandon Moreno (ic) – for the UFC flyweight championship / title unification bout
- Shogun Rua vs. Ihor Potieria
- Jéssica Andrade vs. Lauren Murphy
- Mounir Lazzez vs. Gabriel Bonfim
- Josiane Nunes vs. Zarah Fairn Dos Santos
- Gregory Rodrigues vs. Brad Tavares
- Paul Craig vs. Johnny Walker
- Terrance McKinney vs. Ismael Bonfim
- Jailton Almeida vs. Shamil Abdurakhimov
