News Jailton Almeida will take on Shamil Abdurakhimov at UFC 280

Mohawk Banditó said:
So I don't get it. He was 205 just fine in his debut, even 203 pounds on the scale actually.

So I would get him being heavyweight if just three months later, he weighed in at 22. Seems like he's he's bulking up to it, so all good.

But then three months after that, he was down to 216.5 pounds? If he's just walking around in the 215-225 range, yeah, some adjustments to be a LHW would not be that far out. But I mean, he is fighting a ranked HW next so, I guess it's working. What would I say against that?

*edit* Of the 4 LHW fights that have taken place in California since their recording of in-cage weights, the 8 weights on fight night have been
216.8
218.4
219.0
219.4
219.5
220.4
222.5
225.0

LHW would be incredibly doable for him


It was originally a thread about Bob Sapp which was already posted, so he edited everything to change it.
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HW is full of obese guys who can't fight for shit.
 
SalvadorAllende said:
HW is full of obese guys who can't fight for shit.
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They probably look like they're in slow motion to Jailton. I don't know why everyone is complaining about him fighting at HW, as if he's not running through his opponents all the same. He has the frame to easily add some weight on, too, if he wants.
 
Mohawk Banditó said:
We'll see. Things just get tougher as the bigger weights come with any know-how.

I am confused about one thing. Jailton was going to fight Shamil, who is a career 254-258 pound guy, at heavyweight. There were no restrictions at all. Then the VISA problems switched opponents to Anton Turkalj, and they made it a 220 pound catchweight? Don't quite get why, unless somehow Anton's team somehow had the power to argue that, so his walkon weight wouldn't be dwarfed by Jailton, but they were both under by a fair amount 214 - 216.5

I don't want to see Jailton get beat up by a big guy who knows what he's doing, but I guess it's just easier to get your name in the door at HW, and if he ever gets a "too-big" challenge, then the LHW door is always open for him then.
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Well, why not do it at a 220-lb catchweight? Turkajl took the fight on very short notice and he's not a HW.

If you recall William Knight, he took a LHW fight against Maxim Grishin on short notice and missed weight by a mile, weighing in at 218 pounds. His next fight was a HW bout against Devin Clark, who weighed in at 223 pounds probably expected Knight to weigh in around the same amount. Instead, Knight came in weighing 251 pounds.

Not saying that scenario was likely but that's what I'd have been worried about if I were Turkajl.
 
Sticko said:
Well, why not do it at a 220-lb catchweight? Turkajl took the fight on very short notice and he's not a HW.

If you recall William Knight, he took a LHW fight against Maxim Grishin on short notice and missed weight by a mile, weighing in at 218 pounds. His next fight was a HW bout against Devin Clark, who weighed in at 223 pounds probably expected Knight to weigh in around the same amount. Instead, Knight came in weighing 251 pounds.

Not saying that scenario was likely but that's what I'd have been worried about if I were Turkajl.
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I get that he'd be worried, but I don't expect there to be a lot of negotiating power from the fill-in. In the example ya gave, Knight was the fill-in and he was the one who missed weight, and then was the guy who came in large. It's just strange cuz I guess I usually see it in the lower weights, where a fill-in usually has to cut. Even when they're actually up from the weight class below, cuz their walk-around is still higher than the weight class above them.
 
This guy really just doesn’t want to cut weight so he’s going to sacrifice his title aspirations lol.

I guess he’s content to fight often in a weak division and make solid money once he gets off his initial contract.
 
Mohawk Banditó said:
Jailton was going to fight Shamil, who is a career 254-258 pound guy, at heavyweight. There were no restrictions at all. Then the VISA problems switched opponents to Anton Turkalj, and they made it a 220 pound catchweight? Don't quite get why
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What's not to get, Jailton wasn't planning on doing a weight cut, so 205 is out, and Anton took the fight on short notice, so he didn't want to do a 205 weight cut either, but didn't want to fight at HW with no limit since he's not a HW and he didn't know where Jailton was. Both probably walk around at 220-230 so they agreed to a 220 catchweight, which is a common "Bridgerweight" in MMA
 
kingghidrah said:
What's not to get, Jailton wasn't planning on doing a weight cut, so 205 is out, and Anton took the fight on short notice, so he didn't want to do a 205 weight cut either, but didn't want to fight at HW with no limit since he's not a HW and he didn't know where Jailton was. Both probably walk around at 220-230 so they agreed to a 220 catchweight, which is a common "Bridgerweight" in MMA
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Perhaps I didn't explain this. It's not about what Anton would want. It's in what Jailton would want or who the UFC would want against him. Once you come to Anton as the answer, yes, the rest plays out logically. But it's in finding a replacement, one wouldn't normally have to give them negotiating power. The fact that Jailton was signed up for someone up to 265 means ANYONE 205 to even above 265 who could cut to 265 in time are viable.

I expect Anton was an easy yes with Jailton figuring the 220 is an easy no effort clause for him anyway (in which case it wasn't needed) or else any perceived resistance could have been met with any other replacement
 
Why they keep matching up these young guys with these old farts? I get you want to build up the young guy but beating up some old fart doesn't do jack shit.
 
fortheo said:
They probably look like they're in slow motion to Jailton. I don't know why everyone is complaining about him fighting at HW, as if he's not running through his opponents all the same. He has the frame to easily add some weight on, too, if he wants.
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Like I said, there was a visible difference in his ease of securing a takedown against Parker Porter of all people even after getting the perfect entry on his hips versus some of the solid grapplers he's fought at 205 like that undefeated Dagestani Combat Sambo guy on DWCS, Anton Turkalj, and Danilo Marques. The match-ups only get harder beyond Porter, after all.

I don't doubt Jailton can bulk up and absolutely murk a bunch of Heavyweights who don't know the first thing about technical grappling to begin with, but I feel like it's inevitable that he's going to messily hit a brick wall once he gets into the rankings and meets up with dudes who won't keel over at the first sign of a blast double or RNC attempt. I just think his ceiling at 205 is much higher and I don't think "Add extraneous bulk and hope for favorable match-ups" is necessarily the answer.
 
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Safton said:
Like I said, there was a visible difference in his ease of securing a takedown against Parker Porter of all people even after getting the perfect entry on his hips versus some of the studs he's fought at 205 like that undefeated Dagestani Combat Sambo guy on DWCS. And the match-ups only get harder beyond Porter. I don't doubt Jailton can bulk up and absolutely murk a bunch of Heavyweights who already don't know the first thing about technical grappling to begin with, but I feel like it's inevitable that he's going to hit a brick wall once he gets into the rankings and meets up with dudes who won't keel over at the first sign of a blast double or RNC. I just think his ceiling at 205 is much higher and I don't think "Add extraneous bulk and hope for favorable match-ups" is necessarily the answer.
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I'm just a fan of fighters not cutting weight to be honest, and If that porker fight is the only thing we can critique of Jailton at HW, then we don't have much to critique at all in my opinion and the criticism of how he'll perform at HW is coming far, far too soon.

PlasticFishBowl said:
This guy really just doesn’t want to cut weight so he’s going to sacrifice his title aspirations lol.

I guess he’s content to fight often in a weak division and make solid money once he gets off his initial contract.
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Honestly, why not fight often in any weight division you can while you're just climbing the ranks? Save the weight cutting for later on once you actually meet someone that gives some resistance. This guy has barely been hit thus far. He may as well collect as many checks as possible while he can still fight lower ranked guys across multiple divisions. Most fighters struggle to get 2-3 matches offered a year from the UFC, but fighting across multiple divisions opens up a lot of opportunities -- Jailton is about to collect his 4th check from the UFC in one calendar year, and I wouldn't be surprised if he fights again in december.
 
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fortheo said:
I'm just a fan of fighters not cutting weight to be honest, and If that porker fight is the only thing we can critique of Jailton at HW, then we don't have much to critique at all in my opinion and the criticism of how he'll perform at HW is coming far, far too soon.
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I mean I don't like weight-cutting as an institution, either, as I've said many times in the past. I'd love it if the UFC and all other promotions moved towards a ONE-style model or something similar. It's also why I respect Gunnar and fighters like him so much for taking the stance he does. That being said, while it is around and doesn't seem to be going anywhere I am also able to objectively acknowledge that a given fighter has a higher competitive ceiling in one weight class than another -- even if that means cutting weight.

Porter is the only true Heavyweight outing we have by which to judge him and he's basically the bottom of the barrel for HWs. No extensive grappling pedigree, not particularly athletic, no big wins in the UFC. It doesn't get much easier than that and yet I'd argue that I saw more "adversity" in that brief moment where Jailton made a picture-perfect entry, got to Parker's hips against the cage, and yet still struggled to to elevate and dump him than in the countless times when he's ragdolled other guys at lighter weights -- many of which are more talented fighters and far more credentialed grapplers in a pound-for-pound sense.

Yes, he ultimately mauled Porter in short order. Yes, I'm probably overreacting since there are plenty of other Heavyweights who aren't much more well-versed than Porter in the realm of grappling. Yes, Almeida will likely pack on more weight as opposed to the short-nature "no weight cut" version who fought Porter. But I have a bad feeling that he's going to hit his ceiling suddenly and violently against the big boys who legitimately do know how to grapple and he won't adjust well to not being the hammer for once. That's not to say there aren't tough match-ups for him at 205, too, but I think his route toward the upper crust is much easier to visualize with fewer question marks than at Heavyweight where I legitimately struggle to see a route to victory for him against several contenders.

Just my two cents. I hope he proves me wrong or that this is just a temporary thing he's doing in order to pick up extra paychecks until he can parlay his Heavyweight momentum into a LHW transition later on down the road if/when he hits his ceiling there.
 
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Schamil aint gonna show up! this guys are pullout specialists when it comes to unfavorable matchups!
 
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