Should Jailton Almeida drop down after his loss at UFC Vegas 113?

This past Saturday on the main card of UFC Vegas 113, we saw a clash of heavyweight contenders. Rizvan Kuniev (14-3-1, 1 NC) was looking to get his first win inside the octagon as he took on sixth ranked Jailton Almeida (22-5).

Almeida was not supposed to be Kuniev’s opponent on Saturday night. Kuniev was originally scheduled to face unranked Ryan Spann but when Spann pulled out, Almeida volunteered. It was a risky fight for Almeida given his spot in the division, but he was trying to earn back some good fortune after his loss in his last fight.

Turns out, he probably shouldn’t have taken this risk. Almeida has thrived at heavyweight when he could take down and control his opponents. He couldn’t take Kuniev down at all on Saturday night and as a result, he never got anything going. Kuniev controlled the fight and he won a lopsided decision at UFC Vegas 113.

What’s next after UFC Vegas 113?

Jailton Almeida was coming off a loss in a potential title eliminator against Alexander Volkov. Sure, it was an awful loss where Almeida got takedowns and did nothing with them which ultimately cost him the fight. Had he won that fight, he was looking at a potential title shot.

Instead, he earned a terrible loss and he felt obligated to try and get back in the good graces of the UFC ultimately just to lose and fall even further down the hill. When Almeida made his UFC debut, he was fighting at light heavyweight and it’s not a terribly tough cut for him to make.

In fact, when the heavyweight division was in limbo last year, he talked about moving back down to 205. Honestly, I think he should drop down after this latest fight. He’s such a dominant grappler, but it was proven once again that if he can’t get takedowns, he’s not going to have success.

He’s going to struggle against big heavyweights with good wrestling. While there are light heavyweights with good wrestling, he’s going to have a much bigger physical advantage at 205. I think he should tell the UFC that he wants to move down and fight someone in the top ten next.