Jailton
Almeida must pick off potential threats one at a time if he
wants to reach the top of the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s heavyweight pecking order.
The
Dana White’s Contender Series graduate will go big game hunting
yet again when he faces
Derrick
Lewis—a short-notice fill-in for
Curtis
Blaydes—in the
UFC Fight Night 231 headliner on Saturday at Ibirapuera
Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Almeida steps back into the
spotlight on the strength of a 14-fight winning streak that
includes a 5-0 record inside the Octagon. He last appeared at UFC
on ABC 4, where he turned away
Jairzinho
Rozenstruik with a rear-naked choke in the first round of their
May 13 pairing. Lewis, meanwhile, has lost three of his past four
bouts. He last competed on July 29, when he needed just 33 seconds
to bury
Marcos
Rogerio de Lima with punches at UFC 291.
As Almeida and Lewis make final preparations for their forthcoming
confrontation, a look at some of the numbers that have accompanied
them to this point:
32: Years of age for Almeida, who was born in Salvador, Brazil, on
June 28, 1991.
12: Almeida victories by submission, accounting for 63% of his
career total (19). His methods of choice: 10 rear-naked chokes and
two arm-triangle chokes. Almeida owns seven other victories by
knockout or technical knockout (37%).
2,106: Days since Almeida suffered a setback. He lost a three-round
unanimous decision to
Bruno Assis
at a Shooto Brazil event on Jan. 28, 2018.
150,000: Dollars in post-fight bonuses banked by Almeida across his
five appearances in the UFC. He has been awarded “Performance of
the Night” three times.
.620: Cumulative winning percentage between the two men—Assis and
Tyago
Moreira—who have beaten Almeida. They sport a combined record
of 28-17-1.
38: Years of age for Lewis, who was born on Feb. 7, 1985 in New
Orleans.
22: Lewis wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for
81% of his career total (27). His list of UFC victims: Rogerio de
Lima, Blaydes,
Chris
Daukaus,
Alexey
Oleynik,
Alexander
Volkov,
Marcin
Tybura,
Travis
Brown,
Shamil
Abdurakhimov,
Gabriel
Gonzaga, Damien Grabowski,
Viktor
Pesta,
Ruan Potts,
Guto
Inocente and
Jack May. Lewis
holds one other win by submission (4%) and four more by decision
(15%).
81: Rounds started by Lewis as a professional mixed martial artist.
He has gone the distance on six different occasions and carries a
4-2 record in those bouts.
14: Consecutive calendar years in which Lewis has fought at least
once. In addition to his 1-1 mark in 2023, he went 3-1 in 2010, 3-1
in 2011, 2-0 with one no contest in 2012, 1-0 in 2013, 2-1 in 2014,
2-1 in 2015, 4-0 in 2016, 1-1 in 2017, 3-1 in 2018, 1-1 in 2019,
2-0 in 2020, 2-1 in 2021 and 0-2 in 2022.
165: Combined victories between the 10 men—
Shawn
Jordan (twice),
Sergey
Spivak,
Sergei
Pavlovich,
Tai
Tuivasa,
Ciryl Gane,
Junior dos
Santos,
Daniel
Cormier,
Mark Hunt,
Matt
Mitrione and
Tony
Johnson—who have defeated Lewis. They boast a cumulative .712
winning percentage at 165-66-2.