Dricus du Plessis has his pick for the UFC 321 main event between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane, but he’s just happy that Aspinall is returning to the octagon.
Aspinall defends the undisputed UFC heavyweight championship for the first time since being promoted to that title following Jon Jones notifying the UFC of his retirement in June to headline the UFC’s return to Abu Dhabi on Oct. 25. Aspinall captured the interim belt at UFC 295 in November 2023 with a 69 second knockout of Sergei Pavlovich.
Since then, Aspinall has only competed once, and he only needed 60 seconds to dispose of Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in July 2024. Now that Aspinall is back, du Plessis is putting his fight fan and fight analyst hat on.
“I’m just so happy that it’s actually going to happen,” du Plessis told Fight Forecast. “I mean, fingers crossed, but I mean, when this fight was in the making, we saw Aspinall take a break for, maybe, almost two years, I think, and it almost feels unreal that he’s actually going to fight. And it’s not his fault, of course. … They were waiting for that big Jon Jones fight, which is obviously not going to happen, but he’s where he is for a very good reason.
“All the hype is real when it comes to Aspinall. I just don’t think there’s a heavyweight in the world that can even compete with him on the feet, on the grappling side of things. Now wrestling wise… when it comes to wrestling, he does what he needs to, but when he gets to the ground he’s really skillful.”
Gane, a former interim heavyweight champion, looks to become undisputed champ in his third attempt. Gane lost both of his opportunities to Jones and Francis Ngannou, and got the chance to face Aspinall despite winning a controversial decision against Alexander Volkov at UFC 310 this past December.
The striking and movement of “Bon Gamin” could pay dividends in the fight, but in the end, du Plessis sees Aspinall getting his hand raised.
“Of course, both of them [move] like middleweights when it comes to the feet,” du Plessis said. “They are so light on their feet, but I just think Aspinall has a bit more when it comes to pulling that trigger. We’ve seen Ciryl Gane sometimes almost just let the fight slip away from him, especially when it goes into the [late] rounds. But then again, we’ve never seen Tom Aspinall go that far so it’s going to be very interesting.
“I’m going Aspinall on this one. I think he’s hungry, I think he’s ready, he looks phenomenal in the training footage that I saw. Obviously, Cyril Gane is a specimen. Just the way he’s built, he’s massive. And once again, anything can happen. It’s heavyweight.”
