UFC heavyweight, Jailton Almeida gives his thoughts on the UFC’s heavyweight landscape — including current champion, and sought-after eventual foe, Jon Jones.
Almeida has emerged as a potential future heavyweight champion, going 6-0 inside the UFC since his debut in May of 2022. Most recently he defeated former title challenger, Derrick Lewis over five rounds and now finds himself ranked No.7.
Almeida’s grappling skills and athletic ability has seen him rack-up 19 stoppage victories ( 12 submissions, 7 knockouts) in his 20 wins.
Jailton Almeida talks potential Tom Aspinall clash, Jon Jones’ reign
Talking to MMA Junkie through an interpreter in an interview facilitated by Stake.com, Almeida discussed the now intriguing heavyweight picture. Almeida says that he would like to take on newly crowned interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall, or former interim title holder Ciryl Gane.
Aspinall would defeat Sergei Pavlovich in just over a minute in the co-main event of UFC 295 last month.
“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,” Almeida said. “So, I think probably the Tom Aspinall fight will come first.”(H/T MMA Junkie)
“It will be a very good fight because Tom Aspinall is a complete fighter,” Almeida said. “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.”
While Aspinall’s body of work is certainly impressive, Almeida still believes that reigning undisputed champion, Jon Jones, is still the best in the world.
Jon Jones is still the best in the division,” Almeida said. “I believe Tom Aspinall could eventually get there, but for me, there is no doubt that Jon Jones is still No. 1.”
Who would win if they fought: Jailton Almeida or Tom Aspinall?