“We knew he had a heavy puncher and we had 15-20 days to strategize for this fight,” MMAJunkie quoted the Brazilian as saying. “We were able to do it – I kept him down and avoided his right jab. He got me once, but I didn’t really feel it.”
“Right now I need Cyril Gane. We can do it in Paris, we can do it in El Salvador, we can do it anywhere. I’m ready. Let’s do it Cyril Gun!”
The heavyweight bout, which headlined last weekend’s UFC Fight Night 231 event in Sao Paulo, went the full distance and ended in a dominant but low-scoring victory for the Brazilian by unanimous decision. By controlling “The Black Beast” in the parterre for 21 minutes and 10 seconds, Almeida set a new UFC record for that mark in a single fight.
Former interim UFC heavyweight champion Cyril Gun, who has steadily alternated wins and losses over the past two years, finished Sergey Spivak by second-round technical knockout in September, thus rehabilitating himself for his title shot loss to Jon Jones.