Miami, FL – UFC heavyweight Jailton Almeida responded to criticism from Curtis Blaydes who he fights at UFC 299 about his lack of striking in his fights.
“I didn’t come here to be just another fighter in the division. I’m here to stay,” Almeida told reporters including Cageside Press through a translator on Wednesday.
“If he didn’t see my striking it’s because I haven’t had a need to use it yet. Just the grappling alone has been enough to get pretty much everybody out of my way. I just fought five rounds against who might be the heaviest fighter in the division and someone that’s very accomplished and I did fine.”
Earlier in the day Blaydes had said he wasn’t worried about Almeida’s striking because he would just try to grapple in their fight.
“If he is thinking that I’m that predictable maybe he hasn’t watched the latest fights, but then he might have a surprise there for him on Saturday,” he said.
Blaydes also compared Almeida to a heavyweight Damian Maia while comparing himself to Merab Dvalishvili which forced a hilarious look on Almeida’s face.
“I guess Saturday he’s going to find out. If he hasn’t seen my striking it’s just because I didn’t really have a need to do any of it so far, but I’ve been at this for years and the striking is there,” Almeida said.
“If it comes to that then i’ll show it to him. Love Merab, met him recently, he probably has the record for takedown attempts or something like that because he’s relentless. That’s what I plan on doing.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Jailton Almeida above. He takes on Curtis Blaydes at UFC 299 on Saturday night.
