Curtis Blaydes has suffered an injury in training that’s led to him being pulled from his heavyweight headliner against Jailton Almeida at UFC Fight Night 231 on November 4th in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Luckily the UFC have managed to find a suitable replacement for Blaydes as ‘The Black Beast’ Derrick Lewis has now agreed to step in on a little less than a month’s notice as he looks to build on a TKO victory over Marcos Rogerio de Lima back in July.
That was a much needed victory for the 38-year-old Lewis, who had lost four of his last five fights prior to that, having been KO’d by Tai Tuivasa, TKO’d by Curtis Blaydes and Sergei Pavlovich and submitted by Sergey Spivak during a tough spell for the popular star.
The 32-year-old Almeida poses another big challenge for Lewis as he’s currently unbeaten in his five UFC fights so far, including a TKO victory against Shamil Abdurakhimov and 1st round submission stoppage against Jairzinho Rozenstruik in 2023 so far, taking him to No.9 in the rankings, one spot above Lewis.
Almeida vs. Lewis fronts a UFC Fight Night 231 card that will also feature the likes of Rodolfo Vieira vs. Armen Petrosyan, Gabriel Bonfim vs. Nicolas Dalby and Rodrigo Nascimento vs. Don’Tale Mayes.
