UFC on ABC 4 Aftermath: How Jailton Almeida Punishes Mistakes

A statement was made by Jailton Almeida on Saturday at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, as he finished Jairzinho Rozenstruik in dominating fashion atop UFC on ABC 4. Almeida had a quick night at the office when he put his opponent away via first-round rear-naked choke. Almeida now has his sights set on the striking-heavy Top 10, with names like Sergei Pavlovich and Ciryl Gane being thrown around in theoretical matchups.

However, postulation is not what we do here with Aftermath. Today, we look at Almeida’s win over Rozenstruik and break down some of the slick technique he used on the ground to secure the biggest win of his career:

HEAVYWEIGHT BOOGEYMAN

Almeida is going to have a difficult time finding a meaningful fight with the performance he put forth at the UFC on ABC 4 main event. The heavyweight division has swung to a striking-centric era. Almeida is the antithesis of that. The previously mentioned names, as well as Tai Tuivasa and Alexander Volkov, likely will not be saying his name anytime soon.

In Beforemath, one of our points of contention for Almeida was to not get too crazy out of the gate chasing the takedown. We pointed to his fight with Shamil Abdurakhimov and highlighted the idea that getting caught with a right hand was worst possible outcome for Almeida in his fight with Rozenstruik. When he took on Rozenstruik, Almeida did not really have time to strike offensively. Most of his offense came off the back foot or on the ground. Rozenstruik was foolishly the aggressor in this fight. After the initial glove touch, the Surinamese kickboxer threw wild hooks, and Almeida ducked under and looked for a takedown—one that Rozenstruik shucked off.

Almeida got backed up to the fence and did not panic, which was an encouraging sign. As he moves toward the top of the division with the fighters who like to swing and bang, this will be a more common occurrence for Almeida. He needs to utilize the push kick when pressured to the cage. Why? Because of length. The push kick is one of the longest-range weapons inside the cage. Almeida used the push kick against the fence and punished Rozenstruik for wanting to blitz, landing to the midsection with what was 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 throws back at him. Nobody he has fought has matched him in power, and Pereira knew if he could get close enough, he could land the throw. Adesanya used the push kick because Pereira was not looking to land anything countered off of the push. Normally, a roundhouse to the midsection is what is called for. Pereira was not throwing that in this situation. The left hook was a possible counter, but Adesanya knows range so well that he was not concerned with Pereira countering with that deadly weapon at that range. Almeida loves the push kick. It is one of his initial go-to maneuvers in almost every fight. He throws the push kick and ducks under once the fighter counters with one of those hooks.

With Rozenstruik’s 78-inch reach, Almeida opted not to use that for a duck under. He let Rozenstruik throw the inevitable hook and ducked under it. He adjusted his approach on the feet to use the push kick as a defensive weapon against an opponent who is not always comfortable leading the dance.

Once Almeida finally found Rozenstruik’s legs, the fight was essentially over. It was just a matter of time. To get to the mount, Almeida threw a left hook and went straight for the legs. Rozenstruik tried his best to keep Almeida from advancing to mount from half guard, but the Brazilian was relentless. When he could not find what he wanted in the center of the Octagon where the takedown occurred, Almeida walked Rozenstruik to the fence, where shrimping out was not possible, and pinned him there.

While modern MMA meta may encourage attacking from half guard, Almeida did not want to go that route. He hunted the mount, as he does in all of his fights. He is more comfortable there, with full control of his opponent. Almeida used basic setups and took advantage of Rozenstruik’s green grappling skills on the ground.

On the ground and against the fence, (1) Almeida got his right leg hook in and looked to trick Rozenstruik to (2) shrimp to his left to slide that knee through and move to the mount. Notice how Almeida did not get the hook entirely in and leaves that knee floating around Rozenstruik’s thigh. (3) Once Rozenstruik shrimped to his back, Almeida dropped his weight on the American Top Team rep to keep him on his back and slide that right knee through like a hot knife through butter. The end result was (4) full mount for Almeida.

To finish it off, Almeida pounded Rozenstruik from the mount and forced action out of him. Being inexperienced on the ground under this type of pressure, all Rozenstruik knew to do was to go to all fours and give his back. He could have arched his back, elevated his hips and looked to exit out the rear first. Instead, Almeida cinched the rear-naked choke off of the gaffe. Exploiting mistakes is the name of the game, and Almeida did it perfectly in this fight.

At the end of the day, Almeida came out and performed. Rozenstruik has stepped in there and beaten some of the best fighters the heavyweight division has to offer. Almeida has called for Tuivasa, but Pavlovich, Gane and the rest of the Top 10 need to be prepared. Almeida is a scary fight for everyone not named Curtis Blaydes or Jon Jones, both of whom have the wrestling pedigree to compete with him on the ground. Almeida made a statement at UFC on ABC 4. Do not expect to hear many contenders calling out his name, but he deserves a top-ranked matchup. His resume has earned him as much.