Jailton Almeida believes one half of the UFC 295 co-main event has a clear edge over the other.
Sergei Pavlovich (18-1) will take on fellow surging contender Tom Aspinall (13-3) at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 11 for the interim heavyweight title. The replacement bout was announced a little more than two weeks before Jon Jones’ scheduled title defense against Stipe Miocic fell through, as “Bones” suffered a torn pectoral muscle in training.
While Aspinall is a slight -130 favorite on some sportsbooks in the evenly-matched booking, Almeida (19-2) sees Pavlovich having an advantage. It is worth noting that the Russian was originally supposed to weigh-in as the backup for the title fight between Jones and Miocic.
Keeping that in mind, Almeida believes Pavlovich will have an edge as he was already in a title-fight mindset as opposed to his English opponent, who was just training as usual.
“Jones’ injury opens up opportunities, and now we have Aspinall vs. Pavlovich. As far as who I see as the favorite, I think Aspinall didn’t have the mentality that he was going to fight for the belt. Actually, after his fight, he said he wanted Ciryl Gane.” Almedia said during UFC Fight Night 231 media day.
“Meanwhile, Pavlovich is a guy that had his mind focused on fighting for the belt, and he was serving as a backup and was doing a full camp. I think I’ll favor Pavlovich. He’s the guy with the full camp, and Aspinall was just training to train. He wasn’t mentally ready for a title fight. He wasn’t thinking about the title.”
Currently undefeated in the UFC with all wins coming via stoppage, Almeida is scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night 231 in Sao Paulo opposite Derrick Lewis (27-11) this weekend.
“However, I’m also happy for the opportunities to fight for the title that get opened up now. Jones is out and now Aspinall is fighting Pavlovich. If I beat Lewis on Saturday, I could be next or maybe they make me do one more. There’s a lot going on in the division, but it might open up opportunities.”
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