Almeida moves down in weight class, up in weight
Seconds after watching his longtime teacher Renzo Gracie fall to Matt Hughes at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, Almeida quickly…
Seconds after watching his longtime teacher Renzo Gracie fall to Matt Hughes at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, Almeida quickly cornered UFC matchmaker Joe Silva as soon as he stepped into the cage and made his pitch.
“I was like, ‘Please let me fight Matt Hughes,'” Almeida told MMA Fighting. “I said, ‘That’s the fight I want. If you guys think it makes sense, let’s do it.'”
The fight will be at UFC 117 in Oakland, Calif.
“Honestly I never thought about fighting him in MMA before. But after I dropped to welterweight, here we are.”
“I changed some things in my training. I brought in a nutritionist and someone to watch over the weight cut, so when I fought Brown I was five pounds heavier than when I fought Kendall (at 185). When I fought Kendall I was 187, when I fought Brown I was 192 walking in the ring. Ever since the Brown fight I’ve been lifting weights and working on things outside of martial arts training. I’m probably 198 right now. Matt is a strong guy and I don’t want to be outmuscled by him. Putting on a couple pounds I think is going to help me. We’ll see how I deal with the weight cut but I’m confident it’s going to be no problem.”
Almeida has taken another unusual step, inviting the nationally ranked Rutgers University wrestling team to practice at his Academy..
“I’m learning a lot week-in and week-out. I don’t know if I’ve gotten a single takedown yet since I’ve started doing the training, but I seem to be getting taken down less and less. That’s the key.”
“It’s a chance to be in the spotlight fighting a legend like Matt Hughes and pushing my game to a whole new level. He’s probably one of the best wrestlers ever, for sure one of the best welterweights ever, and I’m preparing to fight that guy, the guy that beat the who’s who of the division. I’m very excited about it.”