Interim heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall is set to fight Curtis Blaydes at UFC Manchester, which is a big bummer for Blaydes’ last victim Jailton Almeida.
Jailton Almeida is a promising young fighter who continues to climb the UFC heavyweight rankings. But it’s hard to be happy with your No. 7 spot when Curtis Blaydes, the fighter who beat you in your last fight, is getting an interim title shot against Tom Aspinall.
If Almeida had beaten Blaydes when they fought at UFC 299, surely it would be him against Aspinall at UFC Manchester this summer. The Brazilian fighter shared his frustrations with MMA Junkie in a new interview.
“I felt a bit surprised and sad,” Almeida said through a translator. “I definitely felt this was my great opportunity to fight against Aspinall. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. It left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Once I learned it wasn’t going to be against me, I knew I missed my chance. But I also know God’s timing is perfect, and I will have my chance in the future.”
Almeida built his resume off a long list of submission and KO wins, but his last win against Derrick Lewis was a boring one-note takedown affair for 25 long minutes. He seemed to be going for the same thing against Blaydes, catching “Razor” with nine takedowns in the first round before getting TKO’d off a sloppy shoot.
“I think I did a really good fight [against Blaydes], I hit him a lot with a lot of lefts,” Almeida said, despite landing just one of three significant strikes in the whole fight. “The beginning of the fight was pretty much perfect, but right at the end, I felt like I should’ve been more cautious. I was overexcited about the momentum. I felt I should’ve been more patient. I just went all in, and I should waited more.”
We’ll see whether Almeida is able to put his tools together to earn a finish against Alexander Romanov at UFC 302, or if he will be even more cautious and be content with top control. One may be the safer route, but it’s not going to earn you a fast track to a UFC title shot, which is what Jailton wants.
“This is serving as an extra motivation for me because I want to fight Aspinall in the future, and I also would like to come back and fight with Curtis once again,” he said. “I’m looking for revenge, and I know the first step is to have a victory on June 1.”
As for who will win between Tom Aspinall and Curtis Blaydes on July 13th?
“I think Aspinall is going to win,” Almeida said. “He’s a more complete fighter … I do believe that Curtis is a very strategic fighter and Aspinall will have to be very patient, just as I wasn’t. Aspinall will have to be very patient and understand to when he can throw himself at Curtis, because Curtis will be waiting for him. On the floor, probably.”