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.
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