A heavyweight fight with potential title implications between Alexander Volkov and Jailton Almeida is reportedly in the works for UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi on October 25th.
The 36-year-old Volkov is coming off a TKO loss to Curtis Blaydes in December of last year, but had been on a four-fight winning streak before that, beating Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Alexander Romanov, Tai Tuivasa and Sergei Pavlovich.
Volkov has never quite managed to fight his way to a title shot, despite coming close several times during his 11-5 UFC run, but given that he’s still ranked No.2 in the division heading into his next match-up, he’s certainly not far away from title contention.
Meanwhile, the 34-year-old Almeida is coming off back-to-back victories over Alexander Romanov and Sergey Spivak, taking his overall UFC run so far to 8-1.
That leaves Almeida placed at No.5 in the division, three spots behind Volkov, so he’ll be hoping a win over him could also put him in the title picture.
Volkov vs. Almeida is the first fight to be attached to the UFC 321 card, and with these two Top 5 heavyweights now booked up it would appear to suggest that newly crowned heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall’s first title defense is even more likely to be against current No.1 contender Ciryl Gane, though the UFC still remain tight-lipped on that for now.
