Tom Aspinall has big plans for the heavyweight division now that he is the undisputed champion.
Aspinall has acknowledged that the division currently lacks depth, meaning that there aren’t a lot of new and exciting matchups.
However, he hopes that he can help to change this by being an active champion, which heavyweight has lacked for some time.
Aspinall has already claimed that he has a date and opponent secured so that he can finally move on from talking about a fight with Jon Jones.
Jones may have recently hinted at a return after re-entering the UFC’s testing pool but there is finally some movement at the top of the weight class now that ‘Bones’ no longer holds the belt.
Alexander Volkov vs Jailton Almeida verbally agreed to for UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi
When Tom Aspinall was promoted to undisputed champion, there were three main contenders in the mix as potential challengers for him to face.
Many expected Ciryl Gane to be the number one choice, even if his win over Alexander Volkov in December was controversial.
Gane’s position as the next in line was seemingly confirmed by an update from Jailton Almeida regarding a fight between him and Volkov.
MMA Fighting have now reported that this matchup has been verbally agreed to, though contracts haven’t been signed, for UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi on October 25.
Given both men’s current statuses in the division, it seems likely that this will be a title eliminator with the winner going on to face the winner of Aspinall vs Gane, if this does end up being the next heavyweight title fight.
Almeida is currently riding a two-fight win streak while Volkov will look to bounce back from his December loss to Gane which snapped a four-fight run of impressive victories.
A UFC analyst made the case for Tom Aspinall fighting a different opponent
This past weekend in Nashville, a fan favorite heavyweight was also spoken about in regards to the heavyweight title picture.
Derrick Lewis may not have beaten a top contender during his current win streak but ‘The Black Beast’ always generates fan interest.
Former UFC fighter Alan Jouban made reference to this on the post-show when speaking about where Lewis’ first-round knockout of Tallison Teixeira puts him in the division.
“Lewis probably has a bigger name value than a Ciryl Gane, who’s probably the guy that we’re thinking that would fight Tom Aspinall next, but Ciryl Gane, the name value is not quite there… After a performance like this, strike while the iron’s hot.”