LAS VEGAS – Jailton Almeida has heard the criticism of his fight style, and he promises there will be a more aggressive version of himself going forward.
Almeida (22-4 MMA, 8-2 UFC) steps into the octagon at the Meta APEX this Saturday at UFC Fight Night 266 for his first fight of the year. He takes on Rizvan Kuniev, looking to rebound from a controversial split decision loss to Alexander Volkov at UFC 321.
Advertisement
Despite racking up 4:27 of control time in Round 2, and 3:42 in Round 3, Almeida found himself on the wrong side of the scorecards against Volkov. While some believed Almeida deserved the win, others were happy Volkov got the nod because the performance was viewed by many as too safe and lacked excitement, especially when in dominant positions on the ground.
Almeida says he’s spoken to plenty of people in his orbit and is aware that he needs to turn it up when opportunities arise.
“I think it comes back to aggressiveness, which is something I’ve mentioned before,” Almeida said through an interpreter at Wednesday’s media day. “I was trained, prepared, I was ready for it, but the aggressiveness was just not there. You need the confidence, and I didn’t have it, to execute the ground and pound. So, I think it’s more of a change in mentality and mindset to actually be more aggressive when I’m there.”
Despite being labeled as a boring fighter by some, Almeida’s record shows he’s a fighter who closes the show early. Through eight wins in the UFC, he’s finished seven of his opponents; three by KO/TKO and four by submission. He aims to get back on track against Kuniev (13-3-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC), and shake that label, even though he knows he has put on some impressive showings thus far in his career.
Advertisement
“I think that people need to see the entire journey and actually to watch my fights from the start,” Almeida said. “Actually, watch what I did on Contender Series and throughout this journey, there are fights that basically I got out of the fight, and I wasn’t even struck. From Contender Series on, I’m not going to let one fight define me. I do think that people need to be watching the fights and see that my journey in the UFC has been pretty good.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC Vegas 113: Jailton Almeida promises more aggression going forward
