Tom Aspinall is finally set to return to action following a lengthy and frustrating layoff.
It was announced Tuesday that he will defend the heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 in October and Aspinall reacted to the matchup in a video blog Wednesday.
This will be Gane’s third attempt to win an undisputed UFC title and Aspinall said: “We are going to try and get rid of Ciryl Gane from the title picture for good.”
Aspinall explained the pair were previously matched up early in their career, before either were ranked contenders, but alleged Gane turned down the fight.
Then, in 2023, following a 73-second technical knockout win over Marcin Tybura, Aspinall said in his post-fight interview that he was going to sit front row for Gane’s main event tilt with Serghei Spivac in France later that year, then he was going to beat the winner of that fight before moving on to face then-champion Jon Jones.
That didn’t come to fruition, though, as “Ciryl turned down the fight on a second occasion,” according to Aspinall who also said the original plan for UFC 304 last summer in Manchester, England, was for him to fight Gane but a scheduling conflict prevented Gane from competing on that card.
Aspinall, who won an interim heavyweight title in November 2023 at UFC 295 before eventually defending it against Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304, has been out of action for the past year. The reason for this, as fight fans are well aware by now, is because of Jon Jones’s unwillingness to fight Aspinall when Aspinall was the interim champ and Jones held the “undisputed” belt.
Jones announced his retirement from mixed martial arts in June — however he has since seemingly rescinded that decision and re-entered the UFC’s testing pool — and Aspinall was promoted to undisputed champion.
“Confidence level’s great,” Aspinall said. “I believe that — well, I am the best heavyweight in the world, but I want to show that I’m the best heavyweight in the world. Ciryl Gane’s lost two title shots and I want to give him his third title shot loss and get him out of there.”
Gane is a former interim titleholder who won a belt in August 2021 when he defeated Derrick Lewis while then-champ Francis Ngannou was sidelined. It was a peculiar decision at the time for the UFC to introduce an interim title. In the unification matchup that followed, Gane lost a unanimous decision to an injured Ngannou, who competed with damaged knee ligaments, in January 2022 at UFC 270. Gane later lost a vacant title fight to Jones after Ngannou left the UFC following a contract dispute.
By the time UFC 321 takes place, it will have been 15 months since Aspinall last fought, but the 32-year-old English star said he isn’t concerned about being rusty because he has had multiple extended layoffs already during his career and it didn’t bother him.
“We can expect an improved version of me,” Aspinall said. “I’ve had a year to train. I’ve had a year to test my skills and improve and I’m going to show everyone what that’s all about.”
Aspinall lost twice early in his MMA career — once by submission in 2015 in his fourth pro bout and once via disqualification in 2016 — but his only setback since his DQ loss was when he blew out his knee just 15 seconds into his 2022 Fight Night main event with Curtis Blaydes. Aspinall avenged that loss to Blaydes last year with a 60-second knockout. Aspinall is 8-1 in the UFC with all of his wins coming by stoppage and only one of his fights making it to the second round.
“I think me and Ciryl both have very niche styles for heavyweight,” Aspinall said of his upcoming matchup. “We don’t fight like heavyweights, both of us, so this could be the fastest, the best-moving heavyweight fights that anybody’s ever seen. We’re both great movers, we’re both light on our feet, we’re both elusive, so this is going to be great.”
Gane has won his past two fights and is the No. 1-ranked contender, however, the 35-year-old from France is coming off a controversial split decision win over Alexander Volkov at UFC 310 in December — a fight the overwhelming majority of fans and pundits thought Volkov had won.
UFC 321 takes place Oct. 25 in Abu Dhabi and also features a heavyweight matchup between Volkov and rising star Jailton Almeida in what is expected to be a title eliminator with the winner facing the winner of Aspinall-Gane.
from Sportsnet.ca
via i9bet
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