Tom Aspinall has his personal enterprise to cope with at UFC 321 however he does have a peripheral consciousness to a struggle of giant divisional relevance on that card. Aspinall headlines the Abu Dhabi-based pay-per-view providing on October twenty fifth and can defend his title towards former UFC interim champion Ciryl Gane on October twenty fifth.
On that very same card, Alexander Volkov will conflict with Jailton Almeida in what might very properly be a title eliminator for the Aspinall-Gane winner. Throughout an unique interview with Bloody Elbow, the reigning UFC heavyweight champion gave a little bit of an outline on that Almeida vs. Volkov matchup as Aspinall stated [via Bloody Elbow],
“That’s how I see it, and I believe that’s fairly apparent. I really thought that Volkov gained the struggle towards Gane, to be sincere. I believe Volkov is in actually good type proper now. I do suppose Almeida is sweet. I’ve not seen sufficient of Almeida’s sport to say how good he really is. At this level, it’s exhausting to say, however I might favor Volkov in that one.”
Tom Aspinall and the connectivity between the heavyweights at UFC 321
Tom Aspinall has beforehand fought Alexander Volkov and that transpired over three years in the past. In March 2022, Aspinall secured a fast submission end over Volkov however the Russian heavyweight has gained 4 of his final 5. The one loss Volkov has on his ledger throughout that stretch is a struggle that many thought he ought to have gained as properly.
This got here towards the aforementioned Ciryl Gane with Volkov taking a extensively polarizing, controversial loss at UFC 310. This shall be Gane’s third crack on the undisputed UFC crown and this outing marks Aspinall’s first title protection.
For Jailton Almeida, he has but to combine it up with this specific crop of heavyweights and this looming Volkov bout is arguably a very powerful, excessive stakes struggle of his profession.