Jailton Almeida’s lackluster performance against Rizvan Kuniev will be his last as a heavyweight. “Malhadinho’s” manager Tiago Okamura confirmed to MMA Fighting that the Brazilian has already informed the UFC of his intent to return to 205 pounds next.
The news was first reported by Connect Cast.
“Malhadinho” agreed to replace Ryan Spann on short notice against Kuniev at UFC Vegas 113, which went down on Feb. 7 at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas, but left the octagon with a unanimous decision defeat.
Almeida
was heavily criticized for lack of action in his most recent bouts, a pair of decision setbacks. On the previous one, a split result against Alexander Volkov, Almeida connected only nine significant strikes despite being on top position for 11 minutes. This time, Almeida landed 31 shots against Kuniev’s 43 significant strikes.
Almeida hasn’t competed as a light heavyweight since his UFC debut back in February 2022, when he knocked out Danilo Marques in just under three minutes. His following bout took place in May, as a heavyweight, when he submitted Parker Porter.
“Malhadinho” made short work of Anton Turkalj later that month in a 220-pound catchweight bout, and has since gone 5-3 as a heavyweight with wins over Derrick Lewis, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Shamil Abdurakhimov, Alexandr Romanov and Serghei Spivac, four of those by way of stoppage.
