Top heavyweight contenders Curtis Blaydes and Jailton Almeida faced off as the featured prelim of UFC 299.
As the fifth contender and coming off a loss, Blaydes defended his spot against seventh ranked Almeida, who was undefeated in the UFC. He started strong, but ultimately Blaydes handed the Brazilian grappling phenom his first loss in the promotion and dashed his dreams of fighting for the title next.
Jailton shot a takedown in the first fifteen seconds but Blaydes got his underhook and got the fence behind him. Almeida kept after it though, and got Blaydes down. He almost took the back, but Blaydes foiled it. However, Almeida lifted and slammed him down again. Curtis kept getting back up but Blaydes kept mat returning him. Eventually Jailton was able to the backpack position, but could not maintain it. Still, no matter how many positions Blaydes escaped, he could not break the body-lock. The round ended like that, with almost no damage done either way.
The second round began with Jailton swinging for the fences instead of wrestling. After a few big swings, Almeida shot for a takedown from far out. Blaydes defended at first, but then switched to hammer fists which completely broke Jailton’s posture. He did not let up until Almeida was out and the referee pulled him off.
Blaydes will move up from his fifth rank with this win, and given his history with interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall he could find himself in a title fight soon.
Official Result: Curtis Blaydes def. Jailton Almeida by TKO (hammerfists) Round 2, 0:36
