Jailton Almeida is no longer under contract with the UFC.
The 34-year-old heavyweight suffered a unanimous decision loss to Rizvan Kuniev at UFC Vegas 113, after taking the fight on short notice as a replacement for Ryan Spann, and the promotion decided to part ways with the Brazilian fighter. MMA Fighting confirmed the news following a report from Laerte Viana.
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Almeida put on a disappointing performance in the octagon, his second in a row with the previous one being a split decision defeat to Alexander Volkov on an Abu Dhabi pay-per-view card, and recently informed the promotion of his decision to go back to the light heavyweight division. It remains to be seen if he will still cut down to 205 pounds to compete for a different promotion.
Despite the setback, Almeida was still ranked No. 8 on the UFC’s official heavyweight rankings days after UFC Vegas 113.
Almeida leaves with an 8-3 record under the UFC banner with an 87 percent finishing rate, stopping the likes of Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Shamil Abdurakhimov, Alexandr Romanov and Serghei Spivac. However, lackluster performances in three of his past five bouts — winning a main event against Derrick Lewis in Brazil and the Volkov and Kuniev losses — played a big factor in the decision.
Mike Heck contributed with this report.
