Ever since Ciryl Gane rejected the matchup against Tom Aspinall at UFC 304, the entire world has been lashing out at the French heavyweight. Gane played himself in the Netflix special La Cage. It was the reason why the Frenchman couldn’t fight the Briton for the interim heavyweight belt before. Even his coach Fernand Lopez directed the blame at Netflix for causing delays. After all, Gane had to deliver as per the contract with Netflix because rescheduling would have been a bit too expensive for the streaming company. But now, the pressure has turned toward Aspinall. How? Let’s find out!
Taking to his YouTube channel, Chael Sonnen recently commended Lopez for taking the pressure away from ‘Bon Gamin’. He emphasized the word ‘pressure’, claiming that it creates fatigue. Sonnen said, “It creates a chemical release, the same as adrenaline, the same as excitement, the same as fear. It creates a release and it can paralyze you.” And that was the problem with Aspinall.
Before becoming the heavyweight champion, Aspinall spent a lot of time calling Jon Jones out. In the end, he was left with disappointment, as Jones called it quits and hung up his gloves. But when Donald Trump announced a UFC event on the White House lawns, ‘Bones’ couldn’t stay away. He came out of retirement in just 13 days and re-entered the testing pool. But according to Sonnen, the fight against Jones is not the toughest one for Aspinall.
‘The Bad Guy’ claimed on his YT channel, “I don’t know that Tom could find himself in a harder spot. I don’t know that I believe that Tom against Jones on the White House lawn would have more pressure on it than Tom’s got himself right now. It’s an opponent that he called for. It’s not an opponent that he wanted. It’s a very hard fight, that’s not as hard as the fight that he was trying to get.” For Sonnen, losing to Jones wouldn’t hamper Aspinall’s legacy. But against Gane, someone Jones disposed of in minutes, he simply could not afford to lose. And that puts additional pressure on him.
Sonnen continued, “And I do feel that it’s hard to recreate an environment that will put more pressure and more on Tom, to not only win, but to perform. Tom’s not got to just win. He’s got to win fast. That’s not reasonable. Tom and his trainers can’t work that out. Tom can’t train, he can’t eat, he can’t sleep, he cannot prepare himself to get rid of Ciryl. Oh, and by the way, he’s gotta do it in under four minutes, like Jon Jones did. Like, I’m just saying it’s not a realistic situation. But it’s still the situation that he finds himself in.”
Tom Aspinall during UFC Fight Night: London at the O2, London, England on the 22 July 2023. Copyright: xAndyxRowlandx PMI-5650-0018
Nevertheless, Tom Aspinall is all set to fight Ciryl Gane at UFC 321. He claimed that he’d get rid of the Frenchman from the title picture for good. But that was a mistake, according to Fernand Lopez. Let’s find out why.
Ciryl Gane’s coach puts the pressure on Tom Aspinall
During a recent conversation with Ariel Helwani on his YouTube talk show, Lopez claimed that, contrary to many fans’ beliefs, Gane wasn’t scared of fighting Aspinall. He claimed that there was no way a fighter in the top 10 ranks would be scared of fighting the champion of the division. So, what did the coach have to say about Aspinall’s bold claim on getting rid of Gane?
He said, “Him saying that he will retire Ciryl Gane, or he will erase him from the title run, makes sense for me. This is fair enough. It’s OK. It’s hard to build the fight in total to clash a little bit. But just keep this in mind: Tom Aspinall has more pressure on him than any other fighter has experienced in the last decade. Can you imagine what will happen if Tom Aspinall does not deliver on October 25? That will be beyond an embarrassment. This is a lot of pressure that you don’t want to take on your shoulders.”
Of course, fighting Jon Jones would be the biggest event for Tom Aspinall. But first, he needs to prove himself against ‘Bon Gamin’ at UFC 321. Now, the question is, can he do it like Jones? Can Aspinall defeat Gane within the first round? Let us know what you think about it.
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