His contract-winning appearance on the 2021 season certainly put him on the radar of a lot of fight fans. A dramatic second-round rear naked choke of Nasrudin Nasrudinov demonstrated why some fans have taken to calling him “Brazilian Khabib.”
He followed up with the UFC debut that most reporters are still asking him about, a first-round TKO of countryman Danilo Marques. The result surprised most everyone, not the least of which was Almeida himself.
“I wasn’t expecting it to happen like that. Danilo Marques is very good on the ground. He’s trained with Demian Maia and Fabricio Werdum. He trains at a great gym, at Rafael Cordeiro’s. I’m a huge fan of Rafael Cordeiro. So I thought it would be a very tough fight for me and it ended in a way I didn’t expect, with a really fast TKO. It was a great debut, thank God. A very positive result.”
And just like that, the light heavyweight division had a new contender. But he’ll put a pin in that rise Saturday when he takes his second UFC bout at heavyweight. He meets Parker Porter on the prelims of UFC Fight Night: Holm vs Vieira. Almeida had been slated to meet Maxim Grishin this weekend, but when Grishin was forced out by injury, Almeida was thrilled when the heavyweight Porter agreed to save the bout. It’s new terrain for Almeida, who is likely to weigh in well-under Porter. But he’s eager to test himself.
“In this fight with Porter, I have to be careful when we strike,” he says. “He’s a striker and defends takedowns really well. When he’s taken to the ground, he wants to stand up fast.”
