A professional fighter for only three years and already competing under the bright lights of the UFC, Eduarda Moura is in no rush to hunt for a belt now that she’s competing as a flyweight. And she feels a similar sense of inevitability for teammate Jailton Almeida, a top-ranked heavyweight who is campaigning to face Tom Aspinall for UFC gold – or earn his shot definitively by beating Alexander Volkov.
“There’s nothing else to be done,” Moura stated. “He will fight someone now, maybe Volkov, whoever shows up, but the next one you can’t deny him a shot at the belt. There’s nowhere to go. Where else should ‘Malhadinho’ go? He belongs at the top and I truly believe he will get there. We’re cool, he’s also cool. We know he will get there so he’s in no hurry, you know? There’s nowhere to go now, just wait.”
Almeida has been highly successful since joining the UFC in 2022, winning eight of nine fights and finishing all but one opponent. He was hoping to be the first challenger for Aspinall following Jon Jones’s temporary step away. The UFC has yet to announce Aspinall’s next opponent, and Moura feels giving Ciryl Gane another title opportunity would be pointless given his previous losses in championship bouts against Jones and Francis N’Gannou.
“I believe ‘Malhadinho’ will be much better prepared for Aspinall because Aspinall will be the toughest fight of ‘Malhadinho’s’ career, of his entire life,” Moura said. “I believe it’s good that he has this time to work and evolve and get to his 100 percent when he fights Aspinall, and God willing bring us the belt.”
And if they do eventually meet inside the cage, Moura believes her friend will once again showcase his wrestling and jiu-jitsu skills to become the first fighter to submit Aspinall in 10 years.
“I think ‘Malhadinho’ takes him down and catches him, for sure,” Moura predicted. “Aspinall is dangerous, everybody knows that. He’s fast and has heavy hands, so I believe ‘Malhadinho’ will go for the takedown early — as he always does, as he loves doing. I hope he takes him down and catches him quickly so our hearts don’t suffer too much [laughs].”
As Almeida awaits his next assignment, Moura is set to compete in Tennessee against former UFC title challenger Lauren Murphy on the preliminary portion of UFC Nashville. Competing for the first time at flyweight in the octagon, Moura secured a decision win over Veronica Hardy and feels delighted to no longer worry about severe dietary restrictions.
“The only — and I hope only — loss of my career happened, and [the weight cut] affected me a lot,” said Moura, referring to a split decision defeat to Denise Gomes in June 2024, when she missed weight by half a pound. “I couldn’t sleep for three nights, I fell ill before the face-off. That weight cut was brutal. It was a learning experience for me to rethink that matter. There’s no need. I’m strong at flyweight. I could even fight at bantamweight, but flyweight is my true division.”
Moura expects the ‘experienced’ Murphy to be composed when they first exchange strikes, but anticipates she will eventually crumble under Moura`s grappling pressure. A victory in Nashville would put “Ronda” at 2-0 as a flyweight. She explained why winning a UFC belt in this division seems less intimidating compared to strawweight.
“I’m a big fan of Weili Zhang,” Moura commented. “She’s someone that I’ve always thought would be the toughest fight in the world, so since I left that division… [Valentina] Shevchenko is also tough, but I trust Weili Zhang’s potential more. That Chinese is a badass. I would be more apprehensive of fighting her in a title fight than Shevchenko. That’s why I think strawweight would be tougher, because of that Chinese.”
While there’s a possibility of Weili moving up to flyweight for a superfight with Shevchenko, Moura isn`t overly concerned.
“She won’t come up. She will stay quiet down there,” Moura joked. “But if she comes, there’s nothing we can do. We’ll have to do what we do. I hope to be ready when I get there [laughs].”
