The UFC is already beginning their booking for 2025 and over the weekend, we learned of a big time heavyweight matchup that’s going down in January. MMA Junkie was the first to report over the weekend that top ten heavyweights Jailton Almeida (21-3) and Serghei Spivac (17-4) will fight on January 18th.
The fight is for three rounds and the January 18th event is expected to be UFC 311 but there is not a venue or location determined at this time. Starting with Spivac, he is coming off a big win in a main event recently against Marcin Tybura. That matchup was a rematch from 2020 where Tybura got the better of Spivac.
This time, Spivac was taken down but he used his slick submissions to get an armbar in the first round. With the win, Spivac moved to 7-2 in his last nine fights. The only two losses he suffered were against former interim champion Ciryl Gane and current interim champion Tom Aspinall.
UFC 311
Coming off Dana White’s Contender Series, Jailton Almeida was all the rage. The Brazilian hadn’t lost since 2018 and he was an insanely dominant grappler. A little undersized for heavyweight, Almeida initially fought at 205 when he made his UFC debut. He even weighed in under the limit at 203 pounds.
However, starting with his second fight he fought at heavyweight and he was insanely dominant. Almeida went 5-0 with four finishes in his first five fights. He dominated Derrick Lewis when they fought and submitted Jairzinho Rozenstruik in the first round of their fight. That led him to a title eliminator against Curtis Blaydes in March at UFC 299.
To the surprise of many, Almeida ragdolled the wrestler Blaydes in the first round. However, he was too desperate for a takedown in the second round and left himself open to a borage of elbows to the side of the head which ultimately led to him losing via TKO. He returned at UFC 302 in June and redeemed himself with a dominant first round finish over Alexandr Romanov.