Saturday night marks a dream come true for Bellator featherweight Weber Almeida.
Not only will he return to the cage for only the second time since September 2015, Almeida will also have the opportunity to compete alongside his hero and mentor Lyoto Machida.
Before Machida fights Gegard Mousasi in the final fight of Bellator 228, Almeida (2-0 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) meets promotional newcomer Castle Williams (4-2 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) during the evening’s preliminary card.
Bellator 228 takes place Saturday at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., near Los Angeles. The main card streams on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.
Before he even lived in the United States, Almeida admired former champion Machida. As he dreamed of moving to California, Almeida pictured himself training under “The Dragon.” Years later, Almeida’s dream has become a reality.
Almeida has not only befriended, trained under, and been cornered by the former UFC light heavyweight champion, but he’s about to achieve his goal of competing on the same card with the MMA legend.
“It’s an honor for me to be on the same cage as Lyoto,” Almeida said. “The dream is coming true for me. For a long time, I worked hard to get here in USA to meet Lyoto. Now, I have this opportunity. It’s an honor for me. In the cage, I will do my best and everybody is going to see how I can (put on) the best show in the world.”
“This is amazing. This is awesome. For example, it’s like you read the book. When you read the book, you learn from that guy. Lyoto and Chinzo (Machida) in my corner? It’s the same way for me. I can learn from them and I can do it the way they did.”
With a few years’ experience training with Machida under his belt, Almeida believes Machida is in pristine physical condition. In 2014, Machida defeated Mousasi, at UFC Fight Night 36.
In 2019, Almeida thinks the world will see a repeat, and at the end of the night “Team Machida” will have conducted a clean sweep.
“Lyoto is stronger now, I can tell,” Almeida said. “He’s ready for this fight. He’s stronger than I’ve ever seen him in my life. He’s going win. We’re going to win.”
