Third time's the charm? Jailton Almeida to call out Ciryl Gane for Paris fight after UFC 311
Yesterday at 05:30 PM
New year, old callout: Jailton Almeida wants Ciryl Gane next in the octagon with a win over Serghei Spivac at this weekend's UFC 311 in Los Angeles.
"Malhadinho" called out the former interim champion after his win over Derrick Lewis in 2023. No luck. The next year, after a quick submission victory over Alexandr Romanov, another callout was issued and ignored.
"My first goal is to beat Spivac, and beat him well, and then I'll grab the mic and ask for a fight in France against Ciryl Gane," Almeida told MMA Fighting. "I'll wait and see what the UFC decides, but if you ask me, I want to fight Ciryl Gane. This is the third time I'm asking to fight him and I hope it happens now with a good win. I hope he agrees. My team and I would love to visit France."
Almeida was 6-0 in the UFC when he suffered his first setback inside the octagon, a knockout loss to Curtis Blaydes in early 2024. He was then slated to face Alexander Volkov, but the Russian was then replaced by Romanov. Back in the win column, the Brazilian heavyweight feels less pressured to perform.
"It felt surreal to be back to the winning track because I was under such a psychological pressure," Almeida said. "Only my team and I know. To come from a loss and then fight someone who's almost leaving the ranking, a loss would be too hard."
With two men holding belts at the moment, Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall, and having already fought Blaydes before, Almeida felt there was no other option for him at the top of the division but to take a step back and face someone ranked one spot below him in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings.
"We have to show our work and be seen," Almeida said. "[Spivac] has fought guys at the top as well, Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane, so he's a tough guy that can sell a fight. He's coming off a win, so it makes my victory look even better."
Spivac has won four of his past five fights in the UFC with finishes in every single one of those victories, losing only to Gane in a Paris main event, and Almeida knows "he's no joke." It's hard to predict the ending of the fight, the Brazilian said, but there's a clear path.
"From what I saw in his last fight against Tybura, he took him down and got swept but [Tybura] made a mistake and lost his arm," Almeida said. "He has good grappling. He's not a good striker, everybody knows that. The Ciryl Gane fight showed that. He was lost on the feet and got knocked out. We have to work the distance and wait for the right moment to take him down."
