Jailton Almeida believes he could be fighting for the heavyweight title next time out.
Jon Jones announced his retirement from MMA, which meant Tom Aspinall has been promoted to the heavyweight champion. However, Aspinall’s first title defense hasn’t been announced, and Almeida believes he deserves it.
“We’re hopeful,” Almeida told MMA Fighting. “In fact, I’m the only guy in the division asking to fight Tom Aspinall. If you look at it, Volkov doesn’t ask for it. Ciryl Gane is shooting movies, Pavlovich already fought him and has another fight booked. I’m the only one left, and I’m the one calling him out.”
Ciryl Gane would appear to be the front runner, but Jailton Almeida thinks he deserves it more. Almeida points to his winning streak and being 5-1 at heavyweight as the reason why he deserves the title shot.
Jailton Almeida is expecting a war against Tom Aspinall
If Jailton Almeida does get the title shot against Tom Aspinall, he believes it will be a very fan-friendly fight.
Almeida knows there are clear paths to victory for both of them, which makes it an intriguing fight. With that, the Brazilian thinks the bout against Aspinall would be a war.
“It’s going to be a great fight because our styles are similar. He’s fast. Not surprisingly he’s the champion,” Almeida said. “What I’ve seen from Tom Aspinall is that he doesn’t fight five rounds. He’s never fought five rounds in his life. He gets tired after the second. Tom Aspinall was never tested to fight more than three rounds. I’m doing six, seven rounds in the gym already, and I’m not even training to fight yet.
“If I fight Tom Aspinall, I’ll take him to the third round to see how he does,” Almeida said. “But Aspinall is no fool, he’s very experienced and has fought tough opponents, so I have to be smart and come up with a good strategy to beat him. To me, when the cage closes there, it’s a war. I’m ready for a war.”
Jailton Almeida is 22-3 as a pro and coming off a TKO win over Serghei Spivac.
