Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight contender Jailton
Almeida believes his next fight should be against interim champ
Tom
Aspinall.
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Aspinall scored a Round 1 knockout win over Russian standout
Sergei
Pavlovich in a short-notice interim title booking at UFC 295 on
Nov. 11. A week prior, Almeida earned a lopsided decision win over
Derrick
Lewis at UFC Fight Night 231 and proceeded to call out former
interim champ Ciryl Gane
in the aftermath of that victory.
While “Malhadinho” is still interested in a clash against Gane, he
believes his next outing might be against Aspinall after he
recently heard the Brit mention his name in an interview. While
Aspinall is arguably one of the most agile and speedy heavyweights
to step inside the Octagon, Almeida believes he can match up with
the interim champ in that aspect.
“Against Ciryl Gane would be ideal, but Tom Aspinall already spoke
to the media or whoever and is already talking about a fight with
Jailton. So, I think probably the Tom Aspinall fight will come
first… It will be a very good fight because Tom Aspinall is a
complete fighter,” Almeida told
MMAjunkie.com. “He has really good movement. I see myself as an
equal in the sense that it would be a good, fair fight. It would be
for the future of the category. It’s going to be the future fight
for the title.”
To set the record straight, Aspinall recently mentioned Almeida
while shrugging off a callout from Gane, suggesting “Bon Gamin”
fight the Brazilian. Aspinall also called for Jon Jones to
be stripped of the heavyweight title with no timeline in sight for
a return from his pectoral injury. However, like UFC CEO Dana
White, Almeida also disagreed with the Englishman’s demand for
Jones to be stripped of the title.
“Jon Jones is still the best in the division. I believe Tom
Aspinall could eventually get there, but for me, there is no doubt
that Jon Jones is still No. 1,” the 32-year-old said.
Almeida has been undefeated since 2018 and went to a decision
against Lewis for the first time in 14 outings. Meanwhile,
Aspinall’s UFC record is nearly perfect with seven stoppage wins,
only marred by an unfortunate loss against Curtis
Blaydes, where his knee gave out early in the fight.