Tom Aspinall has his own business to deal with at UFC 321 but he does have a peripheral awareness to a fight of huge divisional relevance on that card. Aspinall headlines the Abu Dhabi-based pay-per-view offering on October 25th and will defend his title against former UFC interim champion Ciryl Gane on October 25th.
On that same card, Alexander Volkov will clash with Jailton Almeida in what could very well be a title eliminator for the Aspinall-Gane winner. During an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow, the reigning UFC heavyweight champion gave a bit of an overview on that Almeida vs. Volkov matchup as Aspinall said [via Bloody Elbow],
“That’s how I see it, and I think that’s pretty obvious. I actually thought that Volkov won the fight against Gane, to be honest. I think Volkov is in really good form right now. I do think Almeida is good. I’ve not seen enough of Almeida’s game to say how good he actually is. At this point, it’s hard to say, but I would favor Volkov in that one.”
Tom Aspinall and the connectivity between the heavyweights at UFC 321
Tom Aspinall has previously fought Alexander Volkov and that transpired over three years ago. In March 2022, Aspinall secured a quick submission finish over Volkov but the Russian heavyweight has won four of his last five. The only loss Volkov has on his ledger during that stretch is a fight that many thought he should have won as well.
This came against the aforementioned Ciryl Gane with Volkov taking a widely polarizing, controversial loss at UFC 310. This will be Gane’s third crack at the undisputed UFC crown and this outing marks Aspinall’s first title defense.
For Jailton Almeida, he has yet to mix it up with this particular crop of heavyweights and this looming Volkov bout is arguably the most important, high stakes fight of his career.
