Biggest Winners, Loser From UFC Sao Paulo

UFC Sao Paul went down last night (Sat., Nov. 4, 2023) inside Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, airing exclusively on ESPN+. The event featured a Heavyweight fight that saw Jailton Almeida earn a dominant unanimous decision win over Derrick Lewis (recap here). In the co-main event, Nicolas Dalby scored an impressive technical knockout (TKO) win over Gabriel Bonfim (highlights).

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Biggest Winner: Jailton Almeida

Almeida picked up the biggest win of his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) career by dominating Derrick Lewis for 25 minutes, scoring a couple of 10-8 rounds during the five-round Heavyweight slugfest. In doing so, Almeida improves his win streak to 15 straight and goes up 6-0 inside the Octagon. While the win was dominate on the ground, the knock on the Brazilian big man was the fact that he wasn’t very active when he had full mount on several occasions. It seemed as if a finish was looming on multiple instances, but Almeida simply didn’t put his foot on the gas hard enough for a lot of people’s liking. Nevertheless, the win will help him improve a couple of spot in the rankings.

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Runner Up: Nicolas Dalby

Dalby has been one of the quietest warriors in the Welterweight division over the last year, winning a whopping four fights in 17 months, which includes his huge upset, comeback victory over Gabriel Bonfim, whom he knocked out in spectacular fashion. “Danish Dynamite” may not be too far off from a spot in the rankings, though it’s not a sure thing since the 170-pound weight class is absolutely stacked. Nevertheless, Dalby just keeps on winning and improves his UFC record to 6-1-1 in his second go-around with the promotion. He also won a cool $50K after taking home “Fight of the Night” honors…as predicted.

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Biggest Loser: Derrick Lewis

Lewis simply had no answer for Almeida’s takedowns as “The Black Beast” was seemingly taken down at will. Once on the ground, Lewis did manage to escape and reverse position a handful of times, but for the most part it was Almeida on top, in full mount, pretty much toying with the big man. That said, as mentioned earlier Almeida didn’t empty the gas tank like he should have. Still, Lewis did show improved submission defense, preventing the Brazilian big man from locking in several attempts, so there is that lone bright spot. With the loss, Lewis drops to 1-4 in his last five fights and 2-5 in his last seven fights, leaving him in a tough spot in the Heavyweight division. He may drop a spot or two after his latest setback, and his hopes of reaching another title fight are drifting further and further away after each loss.

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For complete UFC Sao Paulo results, coverage, and highlights click HERE.