Kendall Grove had to keep the fight on the feet to give himself a chance. He never figured out a way to stay off the deck against third degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Ricardo Almeida. "Big Dog" was able to close distance and get the fight to the cage where he repeatedly took Grove to the floor. Almeida did his best work in the final minutes of the second round with some huge punches and elbows as he rolled to a unanimous decision (30-27 on all three cards) win.
Grove had a huge reach and height advantage at 6-foot-6 versus the 6-foot Almeida but he could never keep the fight standing for longer than a minute. Even in the third round when Almeida was dropping his hands and dead tired, Grove couldn’t unload on him and was taken down for the final time with 2:20 left in the fight.
