Jailton
Almeida called out heavyweight contender Ciryl Gane
after a lopsided decision win over Derrick
Lewis at
UFC Fight Night 231 on Saturday.
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Almeida (20-2) was a heavy favorite going into his headlining clash
against the feared knockout artist in the UFC’s return to Sao
Paulo, Brazil after four years. Unsurprisingly, “Malhadinho” used a
grappling-heavy approach to completely nullify Lewis’ (27-12)
offense, notching a new heavyweight control time record of over 21
minutes.
However, Almeida’s performance raised certain concerns in the
commentary booth, particularly for Michael
Bisping. Bisping and Brendan Fitzgerald felt Almeida could have
looked harder for a finish, with the referee having to call for
activity in a thoroughly lopsided fight. Meanwhile, Dominick
Cruz repeatedly gave credit to Almeida’s composure and for not
risking giving away any positions against Lewis.
Almeida himself felt he had put on a show. However, he also claims
to have not really felt Lewis’ power despite being tagged on a
couple of occasions, which many believed was the reason behind the
lack of activity. Almeida proceeded to call out French contender
Gane in his post-fight Octagon interview.
“He wanted a brawl, and I said it was gonna be a show, so did I
give you guys the show or what? … We knew that he has a heavy
hand,” Almeida said. “We had 15 to 20 days to come up with a
strategy for this fight. And we were able to do that and keep him
down and avoid his right hand. I was touched and I didn’t really
feel it… And I’m gonna call out a name here, I want Ciryl Gane.
I will fight in Paris, we can do it in Salvador, wherever. I’m
ready, let’s do it Ciryl
Gane.”
Lewis stepped up on short notice to replace grappling ace Curtis
Blaydes, which would have been an entirely different stylistic
matchup for Almeida. “Malhadinho” is currently undefeated in six
UFC outings with all of his previous wins coming via stoppage.
As for “Bon Gamin,” the Frenchman is coming off a Round 2 TKO
victory against Sergey
Spivak back in September and is currently 2-2 in his last four
outings.