Cesar Almeida considers himself a better mixed martial artist after suffering the first loss of his career under the bright lights of the UFC.
“Cesinha” left the kickboxing world to fully focus on MMA in 2023
and quickly earned a shot in the UFC after beating Lucas Fernando on Dana White’s Contender Series. The bonus-winning knockout over Dylan Budka in his UFC debut was followed by a split-decision defeat to Roman Kopylov in June 2024, and he sees that as a definitive moment in his growth as a well-rounded athlete.
A veteran striker with a win over Alex Pereira in kickboxing, Almeida realized it was foolish to expect all middleweights to engage in stand-up battles with him in the octagon — including Cezary Oleksiejczuk, his opponent at Saturday night’s UFC Vegas 112.
“I don’t think anyone will want to strike with me,” Almeida told MMA Fighting. “After Kopylov, I don’t enter fights thinking that way. I learned from that mistake. We have to prepare for MMA. [Oleksiejczuk] is experienced, and if things don’t go well on the feet he’ll want to take it down, so we must be ready for everything. Maybe he’ll try a single-leg right away, I don’t know. We prepared for everything. We’re sharp with the wrestling, sharp with everything, so I think it’ll go well.”
Almeida hasn’t fought since the first UFC event of 2025 back in January, when he knocked out Abdul Razak Alhassan for another $50,000 bonus in the UFC. He injured his knee and was forced to go under the knife 10 days later to fix his ACL, staying many months on the sidelines before finally being cleared to train again.
“The hardest part is the recovery,” Almeida said. “The first and second months are very painful, very difficult. You’re left wondering, ‘Will I be able to come back?,’ because it’s a serious injury. Not training is very hard for us because that’s what we love. I had been on a good streak and had to take a break because of the injury. It’s complicated but part of the game. It wasn’t the first time this happened to me, but hopefully it’s the last [laughs].”
Cezary Oleksiejczuk, brother of UFC veteran Michal Oleksiejczuk, also joined the promotion after a DWCS win — a vicious 36-second knockout against Theo Haig. The Polish talent is 16-3 in MMA and gets an experienced Almeida right off the bat.
“[He’s] nothing different from what I’ve already faced,” Almeida said. “It’s a tough fight for both sides. There’s no easy fight in the UFC. He’s training in Brazil. We know his game well, we mapped it out. We prepared and we’ll execute our strategy and, God willing, get the win.”
“They’ll want to clinch and mix things up because staying in a clean striking match is not a good game against me,” he continued. “It puts them at greater risk of me getting the win. So they’ll want to mix it up, make it MMA, I believe. But they’ll have some striking strategy too to try to nullify my game. Everyone has a strategy, right? I really take to heart what Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until the first punch lands. We have a plan and we’ll follow it, nullify his game.”
