Tom Aspinall will defend his UFC heavyweight crown against Ciryl Gane in the UFC 321 headliner, but a former UFC heavyweight thinks another contender should have received the championship opportunity. In an appearance on MMA Canada, Caio Machado covered several subjects ahead of his clash with Kevin Oumar at UAE Warriors 61 on July 23rd in a light heavyweight contest.
Machado is a former UFC heavyweight and has expressly put it out there that he wants to fight his way back to the octagon someday. Also of note, this interview was conducted before the Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane UFC heavyweight title fight was officially announced. When discussing the recent movement at heavyweight lately after being congested for a bit, Machado said,
“The heavyweight division got a little bit stuck for the past year or so to the Jones-Aspinall negotiations. But I think definitely it should start moving quickly. I think Tom wants to fight right away. My opinion is [Jailton] Almeida should have got the call right away. I wouldn’t put him against [Alexander] Volkov. Just because Tom Aspinall has been away for so long. So I would just try to match up right away. I see another possibility for him would be a fight with Ciryl Gane to try to sell the France versus British rivalry.”
“But I don’t see Gane; like he already got two title shots. He didn’t perform well in the last one with Jones, didn’t perform well against Volkov. So I wouldn’t put him here but I see the UFC looking to that guy either way. Heavyweight looks interesting right now. There’s a lot of younger guys coming up I think. Valter Walker just got three leg locks in a row. Still a prelim guy but showing some different skills for the division. Yeah, looks interesting, looks promising for now.”
The UFC heavyweight signing of Buchecha
Some bigger name signings have happened as of late to beef up the UFC’s heavyweight division with names like former PFL champ Ante Delija and former ONE Championship standout Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida signing to the promotion. Responding to some of these more recent heavyweight signings for the UFC, Machado stated,
“Oh yeah, I forgot about Buchecha. He’s fighting actually on the same, next week [this week] as well on the Abu Dhabi card. That will be interesting to see him in the UFC. I watched a couple of his fights at ONE, he looks solid. I think he’s probably been working his hands more and more. But with that pedigree of grappling like he’s definitely going to be a force as well.”
