The ball has started rolling in the heavyweight division after Jon Jones vacated the title, as Tom Aspinall finally has a fight in his hands. For his first title defense as the undisputed champion, the Englishman will butt heads against Ciryl Gane, as Aspinall recently revealed some history between him and his French counterpart. It appears that the champion had been hunting the contender for a long time.
While recalling both of their debut timelines in the UFC, Tom Aspinall claimed that his UFC 321 clash against Ciryl Gane is the UFC’s fourth attempt to materialize this fight. “Me and Ciryl finally signed on the dotted line… This is the fourth time we’ve been matched up together,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel. He then narrated all the instances when his wish to fight Gane just didn’t come to fruition.
The first instance when Tom Aspinall expressed his wish to fight Ciryl Gane was back when they were ranked contenders. The Englishman claims it was the latter who turned down that offer. After his win over Marcin Tybura in 2023, Aspinall once again aimed for a fight against Gane, but he wasn’t specifically aiming to ‘Bon Gamin’. He actually claimed that he’d fight the winner of the fight between the Frenchman and Serghei Spivac, and as we all know, Gane emerged as the winner in that fight. But he didn’t want to entertain the plan for a fight against Aspinall. That may be because he wanted a title fight.
“First of all, we got matched up, and I believe he turned down the fight early on before we were both in the rankings. After that, I went to Paris. He fought Spivac,” Tom Aspinall further stated. “I said… after I beat Tybura, I’m going to go to Paris and I’m gonna sit there front row and I’m gonna fight the winner of Ciryl Gane and Spivac. I went to Paris. Ciryl, unfortunately, turned down the fight on a second occasion. “
The third time wasn’t the charm for Tom Aspinall, as he claims Ciryl Gane could have fought instead of Curtis Blaydes against him at UFC 304. However, the Frenchman was with his Netflix show, K.O., and Dana White had to scrap those plans once again. But now, there is no point in backing down as ‘Bon Gamin’ has his shot at the undisputed heavyweight title at UFC 321.
“Third occasion, around about this time last year, when I fought in Manchester. When I fought Curtis Blaydes, the original opponent was Ciryl Gane,” Tom Aspinall added. “Unfortunately, Ciryl Gane was busy that day. Ciryl was filming his Netflix series… He couldn’t make that date either. And now we are matched up for the 25th of October, Abu Dhabi.”
Well, Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane may be fighting each other at UFC 321, but guess what? They may need to keep a close eye on another heavyweight fight taking place on the same card. In fact, the other heavyweight could be a potential title eliminator bout.
Tom Aspinall vs Ciryl Gane headliner gets a potential title eliminator
Yes, besides Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane, two other top contenders, Alexander Volkov and Jailton Almeida, will also be competing at UFC 321. When it comes to the Russian star, he suffered a very contentious decision loss to ‘Bon Gamin’ in his last fight. So, he’s back in action in October against Almeida, who has run through his opponents with his exceptional grappling skills. In fact, the Brazilian star has the longest control time record to his name.
There’s no doubt that Dana White is what comes after Tom Aspinall’s title defense against Ciryl Gane. Both Alexander Volkov and Jailton Almeida have shown to be credible contenders in the division, and their record says it all. For the Russian, she has been calling for a title shot, and this fight may be it, while Almeida even expressed wanting to go down a weight class for the light heavyweight title recently, when Jon Jones apparently held up the heavyweight division.
Well, there is no need for any heavyweight contender to worry about getting title shots, as the division is now operating as it should. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see how the Aspinall vs Gane fight pans out after the fight went through so many hoops to get materialized. Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.
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