Jailton Almeida did not waste any time in calling out former heavyweight title challenger Ciryl Gane after a spectacular first-round submission win over Alexander Romanov in the preliminary card of UFC 302: Makhachev vs Poirier.
Almeida, who stepped inside the cage on the back of a TKO loss against Curtis Blaydes, jumped back to the winning column with a statement win as he submitted Romanov at the 2:27 mark of the very first round to pick up his seventh win inside the UFC cage.
Not surprisingly, Almeida took down Romanov in the fight’s opening seconds before finding his back for a neck crank. When that wasn’t enough to put down Romanov, Almeida found the neck for a rear naked choke to hand Romanov the first submission loss of his MMA career. Soon after the victory, the Brazilian fighter called out Ciryl Gane for a showdown in France.
Jailton Almeida calls out Ciryl Gane for UFC France
UFC will return to London, England, inside the O2 Arena later this year on July 23. The main event of the evening will witness interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall and Curtis Blaydes in a rematch with several exciting fights on the main card.
UFC has also teased a return to France, an event that has seen Ciryl Gane headline the card on multiple occasions in the past. It is on this card that Jailton Almeida hopes to face Ciryl Gane, which will probably guarantee a shot at the gold should he get past the Frenchman.
However, multiple announcements remain for this fight to come to fruition, but given the history of opponents Ciryl Gane has faced, it might not be the best match-up for the two-time title challenger.
Be that as it may, it’s a fight that make a lot of sense if the idea is to push Gane against tougher match-ups. However, whether or not the UFC decides to go forward is something only time will tell. Be that as it may, several other fighters are still ranked above Almeida, and they could possibly find themselves opposite the Brazilian in their next fight. The list includes the likes of Sergei Pavlovich and Alexander Volkov.
As it stands right now, Gane is #2 in the UFC’s heavyweight rankings, and Almeida will find himself in the top 5 of the division when the rankings are updated this Monday.