UFC Charlotte Aftermath: How Jailton Almeida Punishes Mistakes
With his win at UFC Charlotte, it’s only up from here for Almeida
A statement was made by Jailton Almeida (19-2, 7 KOs, 12 subs)as he finished Jairzinhio Rozenstruick in a dominating fashion. Almeida had a quick night at the office when he put his foe away in the first round via rear naked choke. Now Almeida has his sights set on the striking-heavy top ten with names like Sergei Pavlovich and former interim champion Ciryl Gane being thrown around.
But postulation is not what we do here on Aftermath. Today we will look at Almeida’s win over Rozenstruick and break down some of the slick technique he used on the ground to secure the biggest win of his career.
Jailton Almeida: Heavyweight Boogeyman
Almeida is going to have a hard time finding a meaningful fight with the performance he put on at UFC Charlotte. Heavyweight has swung to a striking-centric era. Almeida is the striking antithesis of that. The previously mentioned names as well as Tuivasa and Volkov likely will not be saying his name anytime soon.
In our weekly Beforemath pre fight column, one of our points of contention for Almeida was to not get too crazy out of the gate to chase the takedown. We pointed to his fight with Shamik Abdurakhimov and getting caught with a right hand as a worst possible outcome for Almeida in his fight with Rozenstruick.
When he took on Rozenstruick, Almeida didn’t really have time to strike offensively. Most of his offense came off the back foot or on the ground. Rozenstruick was foolishly the aggressor in this fight. After the initial glove touch, Rozenstruick threw wild hooks and Almeida ducked under and looked for a takedown, one that Rozenstruick would shuck off.
Almeida would get backed up to the fence and not panic, an encouraging sign. As he gets to the top of the division with the fighters who like to swing and bang, this will be a more common occurrence for Almeida. Seeing him not throw wildly when pressured to the cage, instead utilizing that push kick. The reason I like the push kick for Almeida is how long of a weapon it is. The push kick is one of your longest range weapons in the cage. Almeida using the push kick against the fence punishes Rozenstruick for wanting to blitz and lands to the midsection, a long term investment.
Taking this up a notch in terms of striking prowess, Israel Adesanya used the push kick against Alex Pereira in their fourth fight at UFC 287. Pereira has the tendency to push forward regardless of what the opponent is throwing back at him. Nobody he’s fought has matched him in power and Pereira knows if he can get close enough, he can land the throw. Adesanya used the push kick because Pereira isn’t looking to land anything countered off of the push. Normally a roundhouse to the midsection is what is called for. Pereira isn’t throwing that in this situation. The left hook is a possible counter but Adesanya knows range so well that he’s not concerned with Pereira countering with that deadly weapon at that range.
Almeida loves the push kick. It’s one of his initial go-to’s in almost every fight. He throws the push kick and ducks under once the fighter counters with one of those hooks we spoke about earlier. Here, with Rozenstruick’s 78″ reach, Almeida opted not to use that for a duck under. He let Rozenstruick throw the inevitable hook and duck under that. He adjusted his approach on the feet to use the push kick as a defensive weapon on a Rozenstruick who isn’t always comfortable leading the dance.
Once Jailton Almeida finally found the legs of Rozenstruick, the fight was pretty much over. It was just a matter of time. To get to the mount, Almeida threw a left hook and went straight for the legs. Rozenstruick tried his best to keep Almeida from advancing to mount from half guard but Almeida was relentless. When he couldn’t find what he wanted in the center of the octagon where the takedown occurred, Almeida walked Rozenstruick to the fence where shrimping out wasn’t possible and had Rozenstruick pinned there.
While modern MMA meta may encourage attacking from half guard, Almeida didn’t want to do that. He hunted the mount, as he does in all of his fights. He’s more comfortable there with full control of his opponent. Almeida used basic setups and took advantage of Rozenstruick’s green grappling skills on the ground.
On the ground and against the fence, (1) Jailton Almeida would get his right leg hook in and look to trick Rozenstruick to (2) shrimp to his left to slide that knee through and to the mount. Notice how Almeida doesn’t get the hook entirely in and leaves that knee floating around the thigh of Rozenstruick. (3) Once Rozenstruick shrimps to his back, Almeida will drop his weight on Rozenstruick to keep him on his back and slide that right knee through like a hot knife through butter. The end result is (4) full mount for Almeida.
To finish things off, Almeida would pound Rozenstruick from the mount and force action out of him. Being inexperienced on the ground under this type of pressure, all Rozenstruick knew to do was to go to all fours and give his back. Instead he could have arched his back, elevated his hips and looked to exit out the rear first. But he didn’t he Almeida sunk in the rear naked choke off of the gaffe of Rozenstruick. Exploiting mistakes is the name of the game and Almeida did it perfectly in this fight.
At the end of the day, Jailton Almeida came out and performed. This week’s Beforemath on the fight was titled “Can Jailton Almeida break through the static?” I’m willing to say that he has. Rozenstruick has stepped in there and beat some of the best fighters the heavyweight division has to offer. Almeida has called for Tai Tuivasa. But Pavlovich, Gane, and the rest of the top ten need to be prepared. Almeida is a scary fight for everyone not named Ciryl Gane or Jon Jones, both of which have the wrestling pedigree to compete with Almeida on the ground. Jailton Almedia made a statement at UFC Charlotte. I don’t expect to hear many calling his name out unless they’re wanting to get into the top ten. But Almeida deserves a top ranked matchup. His resume has earned him that.