A possible contender has entered the UFC heavyweight division.
It’s an intriguing time for the heavyweights as Jon Jones isn’t any longer the champion after two years. With Jones’ official retirement from MMA, interim titleholder Tom Aspinall has been promoted to the brand new undisputed champion of the world.
Aspinall has quite a number of options for his title defense, corresponding to Ciryl Gane, Alexander Volkov, and Jailton Almeida.
Amid talk on who’s next for the title and Jones potentially coming back, the UFC has added a talented prospect to the burden class.
Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida to make UFC debut in Abu Dhabi
Grappling star Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida is the UFC’s latest signing.
The previous ONE Championship fighter has a 5-1 record as a professional and is a 17-time BJJ world champion. Almeida is coming off a first-round submission win over former Greco-Roman wrestling champion Amir Aliakbari at ONE 169 last November.
At 35, Almeida’s only MMA loss is to current ONE heavyweight champion Oumar ‘Reug Reug’ Kane.
Revered because the ‘best heavyweight grappler in MMA’, Almeida is about to make his promotional debut against Martin Buday on July 26 at UFC Abu Dhabi, based on a report from Bert MMA.
Almeida’s first UFC opponent Buday is 15-2 with a 6-1 record within the UFC. Buday is coming off back-to-back wins over Uran Satybaldiev and former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski.
UFC Abu Dhabi may be one of the best Fight Night of the yr
Marcus Buchecha joins a stacked lineup at UFC Abu Dhabi.
The primary event pits former UFC champion Robert Whittaker against former two-division ONE champion Reinier de Ridder across five rounds or less.
The co-headliner is a probable title eliminator within the featherweight division because the undefeated Movsar Evloev welcomes blue-chip Bellator star Aaron Pico to the UFC.
Former champion Petr Yan also returns to Abu Dhabi when he fights down the ladder against the #13-ranked Marcus McGhee.
That’s not all, as featherweight Bryce Mitchell will make his bantamweight debut against Said Nurmagomedov and the 15-1 Shara Magomedov is about for his return against Marc-André Barriault.