Jailton Almeida had a winning record and was a promising prospect as summer turned to fall in 2018. He held a 7-2 record, was only 27 years old and seemed to be on an upward climb. In his mind, though, things weren't clicking the way he wanted.
"There was a point where I was asking myself, 'When will this all come together for me?' and I wasn't sure," Almeida told Yahoo Sports, ahead of UFC Charlotte on Saturday in which he'll meet power-punching Jairzinho Rozenstruik in the five-round heavyweight main event.
"In 2018, after my last loss, it kind of clicked," Almeida said."I realized changes had to be made in my game, and I think we've been able to perfect it. The grappling was always about control with some ground-and-pound and looking for submissions. I've watched a lot of the Dagestani wrestlers like Khabib [Nurmagomedov], [Islam] Makhachev and [Khamzat] Chimaev. They have a style that appeals a lot to me.
Almeida is a big man — he's 6-foot-3, heavily muscled and says a good weight for him now is around 240 plus or minus a pound or two — but he'll give up 25 pounds or so to Rozenstruik. "The main concern with fighting at heavyweight is the punching power that the extra weight some guys have adds to their power," Almeida said."Overall, though, I'm comfortable with where I am. If you look at most of them, they carry a little extra weight. They may weigh-in at 265, but they seem to be 10, 15, maybe 20 pounds they could lose. I'm 230, 240, but I'm lean. I could put on more weight if I wanted to but I don't think I'd gain anything by doing that.
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