Jailton Almeida cruised to victory on Saturday night in São Paulo, Brazil, defeating short-notice replacement Derrick Lewis.
Almeida was scheduled to fight Curtis Blaydes in Saturday’s main event, but after a withdrawal from the bout, Lewis stepped in on approximately four weeks’ notice.
Almeida dominated Lewis over five rounds including more than twenty-one minutes of control time as he kept his UFC unbeaten streak intact.
The 32-year-old Brazilian executed multiple takedowns in the opening round and mounted Lewis while Almeida fished for a head-and-arm choke. Almeida scored six takedowns over the contest and out-landed Lewis by a margin of 120 to 28, per UFC stats.
Almeida was awarded the win by unanimous decision with two scores of 50-44 and one 50-45 card.
Almeida is 6-0 in his UFC campaign with the heavyweight winning three fights in this calendar year as he ascends the UFC’s heavyweight division.
Lewis has lost four of his last five fights going back to February 2022.
Nicholas Dalby stopped rising prospect Gabriel Bonfim in the second round of their welterweight fight and earned his fourth consecutive victory in the Octagon.
Dalby silences the crowd! 🙊@DalbyMMA knockouts Gabriel Bonfim in the second round! 🇩🇰#UFCSP pic.twitter.com/qS0n8weNr5
— UFC (@ufc) November 5, 2023
The two were awarded the Fight of the Night bonus after Dalby was out-struck in the first round and overcame three takedowns handing Bonfim the first loss of his career.
Dalby improves to 23-4-1 with two no-contests and was his third win of 2023 and his first stoppage win since 2019.
Performance of the Night bonuses went to Elves Brener for his knockout win against Kaynan Kruschewsky in the first round of their 165-pound catchweight fight, and another bonus for Vitor Petrino for his KO of Modestas Bukauskas in a light heavyweight affair.
First round KO for Elves Brener! 🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/YGZaKXXEjZ
— UFC (@ufc) November 5, 2023
The UFC announced an attendance of 10,772 at the Ginásio do Ibirapuera in São Paulo, Brazil – their first card in the city since November 2019.
UFC 295 is next weekend with the promotion’s return to Madison Square Garden with Jiří Procházka fighting Alex Pereira for the vacant light heavyweight title and an interim heavyweight title bout between Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich.
RESULTS:
*Jailton Almeida def. Derrick Lewis by unanimous decision (50-44, 50-44, 50-45)
*Nicholas Dalby def. Gabriel Bonfim by TKO at 4:33 of Round 2
*Rodrigo Nascimento def. Don’Tale Mayes by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Caio Borralho def. Abus Magomedov by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Elves Brener def. Kaynan Kruschewsky by KO at 4:01 of Round 1
*Rinat Fakhretdinov vs. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos ended in a majority draw (29-28, 28-28, 28-28)
*Vitor Petrino def. Modestas Bukauskas by KO at 1:03 of Round 2
*Angela Hill def. Denise Gomes by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Eduarda Moura def. Montserrat Ruiz by TKO at 2:14 of Round 2
*Marc Diakiese def. Kauê Fernandes by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-37)
