What’s the French for “third time’s the charm”? For full transparency, this is a rhetorical question that will be answered in the final paragraph of this article, but the saying must have been uttered to Ciryl Gane at least once in the build-up to UFC 321.
The thing Gane pines for most in his sporting life will, for the third time, be within his grasp on Saturday, kept somewhere safe inside Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena: the undisputed heavyweight title.
Gane, now 35, knows what it is like to feel the embrace of the interim belt, and to trace its gold, embossed lettering with the 4oz gloves that serve as every UFC fighter’s greatest negotiation tool. Yet the Frenchman failed to unify his title with Francis Ngannou’s official version in 2022, failed to withstand Jon Jones with the vacant undisputed belt on the line in 2023, and on Saturday, he will share the cage with a man who uses those leathery negotiation tools like no one else can.
Tom Aspinall also knows what it is like to be interim UFC heavyweight champion, and one could argue that – in another world – Gane might have similarly received the fortune to be elevated to undisputed champion. That said, few would argue that Aspinall has been “fortunate” in the two years since winning the interim belt; forced to remain outside the cage for long stretches, Aspinall was teased with the prospect of a legacy-defining fight with Jones, only for the latter to retire after wasting parts of the Briton’s prime.
Yet when Aspinall is permitted in the cage, there is an eerie thrall to the destruction. Two minutes and two seconds is Aspinall’s average fight time, the shortest of any UFC athlete with five fights or more, and – save for an early injury in one fight – he has punched in those numbers by punching out a who’s who of the heavyweight division. Not always punching, mind; the 32-year-old’s submission threat is one of his most formidable assets, as is his ability to combine it with his freakish power, unusual speed and agility, and impressive ring IQ.
One cannot help but think of Aspinall’s accidental tribute to The Matrix, as he leaned back to evade an Alexander Volkov head kick then slipped a cross like he was dodging bullets, before ghosting undetected into a takedown. That marked the beginning of the end for the Russian in 2022. And conversely, one cannot help but think of Gane’s capitulation against Jones, when the French kickboxer wilted under the heavyweight debutant’s wrestling and was submitted at the two-minute mark.
Blur those visuals together and you may have a premonition of what the main event of UFC 321 will look like, as Aspinall makes his first defence of the undisputed title.
Still, the Wigan heavyweight is the first to commend Gane’s talents, and he is not taking this task lightly. After the prolonged saga with Jones, Aspinall knows the pressure in play now.
Many accused Jones, 38, of retiring for fear of the Briton, who was seen as the world’s consensus best heavyweight even before he was awarded the undisputed belt. But if Aspinall is to fail on Saturday, Jones and his fans will be out in full force – on social media, of course. Supporters’ swoons over Aspinall’s seemingly generational skillset will give way to sighs, while there will be sneers in other corners.
An Aspinall defeat would change the presumed future of the division as we know it. It is an intense prospect to consider.
It is strange, in any case, that much more of Aspinall’s career has been consumed by Jones than Gane’s, despite the Frenchman being the one to have actually fought the American. Since that bout, Gane has struggled for activity like Aspinall, competing just twice and most recently outpointing Volkov (controversially) last December. Aspinall himself last fought in July 2024, erasing Curtis Blaydes in barely a minute to set right the afore-mentioned injury-induced loss. That contest also saw Aspinall make the rare decision to defend the interim belt.
That brought immense pressure, but Saturday will somehow present an even steeper precipice for Aspinall to stand on. And in 4oz gloves, all it takes is a little push.
Crucially though, Aspinall has always been open about his “fear” of fighting and has thrived in spite of it – or by channelling it in the right way. Can Gane do that?
“If you’re getting in a fist fight in front of millions of people, you should be feeling pressure,” Aspinall recently told TNT Sports. “The difference is, I think I do really, really well against pressure. I think Ciryl is an extremely talented fighter… [but] I think sometimes the pressure gets a little bit too much for him.
“It gets too much for everyone at some stage,” added the ever-polite Aspinall, quickly, “but I think that I’m one of the people who shine under pressure.
“Somebody told me recently that the elite fighters… it means everything to them, but they do it like it means nothing. And I think that’s the approach that I have [applied] really well. This fight means absolutely everything, but I’ve got to go in there like I don’t care about it.
“This is Ciryl’s third title shot, and although there’s a lot of pressure on me, there’s also a lot of pressure on him – because if he doesn’t win this one, he’s probably not gonna get a fourth.”
And so for Gane, the third time really must be the charm. To save you looking it up: jamais deux sans trois.
