This coming Saturday, Jailton Almeida will look to pick up his third consecutive heavyweight win, as he takes on Derrick Lewis in UFC Sao Paulo’s main event.
Originally “Malhadinho” was scheduled to take on Curtis Blaydes, but Blaydes pulled out of the fight with an ankle injury. Fortunately for the Brazilian fans, the veteran Lewis stepped in, despite picking up just one win in his last four fights.
The heavyweight division was recently dealt a hammer blow as champion, Jon Jones, suffered a torn pectoral muscle which has ruled him out for up to eight months. With that, the UFC booked an interim title fight between Sergei Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall.
At the UFC Sao Paulo media day, the Brazilian claimed that he is next to fight for a title if he successfully gets past the long tenured Lewis. Almeida also admitted that it is his ‘dream’ to fight Jon Jones and so is ‘worried’ now that he’s injured.
“I worry because it’s always been my dream to fight Jon Jones and I don’t know if that’s going to be able to happen now, but you know, I think this opens up a lot of opportunity, Stipe’s not fighting and now Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich are fighting so maybe with a win over Derrick Lewis i’m next, so yeah there’s a lot of turbulent things going on in the heavyweight division, but it might open up some opportunities.”
Derrick Lewis’ jiu-jitsu defense has always left a lot to be desired as fans have joked before that he ‘just stands up’. Almeida though sent a warning at the media day that it wouldn’t work against him, and there is evidence as to why.
“Just look at his fight with Spivac and Spivac isn’t even a jiu-jitsu player. You can see a bunch of other fights, my fight with Jairzinho and you know once I got him down, he didn’t get up till the ref pulled me off so do you think it’s going to be any different with Derrick Lewis? They like to play on their back and that’s how a turtle plays so yeah, I don’t think he’s going to get back up once I get him down.”
Check out the full UFC Sao Paulo media day appearance from Jailton Almeida above.
