A new era is underway in the UFC heavyweight division, and the top contenders are now in pursuit of Tom Aspinall’s crown.
Aspinall had his interim champion status converted to undisputed this past Saturday when Dana White announced that Jon Jones had retired.
The news ended much speculation and debate over the division’s title picture, which had featured two champions for 19 months owing to Jones’ refusal to fight Aspinall and unify the gold.
With that, the weight class can move on, and one contender is leading the charge with their callouts of Aspinall.
Jailton Almeida plans to drag Tom Aspinall to deep waters
Not many have immediately leaped forward to claim the first shot at the newly crowned heavyweight king. That, however, cannot be said for Jailton Almeida.
The Brazilian quickly went to work on social media, replying to a number of prominent accounts laying out why he should be first in line for a crack at Aspinall.
And that trend continued in a recent interview with MMA Fighting, during which Almeida even broke down how he would make Aspinall’s undisputed reign a short one.
“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. 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.”
‘Malhadinho’ has been desperate for an opportunity at winning UFC gold this year. To prove it, Almeida even called out Magomed Ankalaev, the light heavyweight champion.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesTom Aspinall sets his goal as undisputed UFC heavyweight champion
While Almeida intends to usurp him if given the chance, Aspinall is planning for a long dominion over the heavyweight division.
In a short video posted to his YouTube channel, the undisputed titleholder reacted to Jones’ retirement. After thanking his supporters, Aspinall vowed to be the “best heavyweight ever” while building his legacy on the throne.
“Moving forward, very, very important to me that I acknowledge everybody quickly who has supported me in this.
“I’m not going to say it was a tough time, but a bit of a challenging time over the last 10, 11 months, that I have been inactive due to no fault of my own.
“But luckily, that is all behind us now. Massively appreciate the support from everybody, massively appreciate the support going forward.
“I’m gonna keep this thing as active as possible. I wanna be the best heavyweight ever to walk the face of the earth,” Aspinall added. “I’m gonna defend this thing as many times as I possibly can.”
Whether or not Aspinall’s journey to that begins against Almeida or another contender, though, remains to be seen.