UFC 299 continues to stack up and yesterday we learned of a massive heavyweight matchup that’s heading to the main card. MMA Fighting was the first to report yesterday that top five heavyweights Jailton Almeida (20-2) and Curtis Blaydes (17-4) will face off on that card.
UFC 299 goes down on March 9th in Miami, Florida. Originally, these two were supposed to headline the show in Sao Paulo back in November, but Blaydes suffered an injury during training. With Blaydes out, Derrick Lewis stepped in to face Almeida.
It was a massive moment for Almeida who was fighting in front of his home country. He had won his first five fights in the UFC all by finish and only one saw the second round. Given Lewis’ ability to knockout anybody on the planet, the world expected a spectacular finish one way or the other.
Instead, we got a complete dud of a fight. Almeida took Lewis down at will and pretty much just laid on him for five rounds. He won a decision and called for a fight with Ciryl Gane. However, the UFC didn’t have interest in giving him Gane and instead, they booked him against Blaydes once again.
UFC 299
For years, Curtis Blaydes has knocked on the door of a UFC title shot. Make no mistake about it, “Razor” Blaydes is one of the very best heavyweights in the world. However, every time he’s approached a title shot, he’s fallen short. Most recently, he had a three-fight winning streak heading into a fight with Sergei Pavlovich.
Unfortunately for Blaydes, he was stopped in the first round. Dating back to his debut with the promotion, Blaydes has an impressive 12-4, 1 NC record in 17 fights. The losses came against Pavlovich, Derrick Lewis, and Francis Ngannou twice. However, he’s defeated the likes of Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Alexander Volkov, Junior Dos Santos, and others.
He even holds a win over current interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall. Granted, the win came via injury TKO when Aspinall injured his knee. Nevertheless, he still holds a W over Aspinall. This is going to be a great test for both fighters and whoever wins has a strong case for a title shot.