Jon Jones says he learned a lot by watching Tom Aspinall fight Ciryl Gane, and wasn’t exactly impressed.
Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) put his heavyweight title on the line against Gane (13-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in the main event of UFC 321. It was Aspinall’s first appearance since last July, where he defended the interim heavyweight title by stopping Curtis Blaydes in one minute.
Jones was an interested party, even though he relinquished his title in retirement. Ever since the UFC White House card became an event planned for next summer, Jones has begged Dana White to place him on the event. Had things gone smoothly at UFC 321, Jones potentially could have fought Aspinall.
However, the fight did not go off without a hitch, as Gane severely poked Aspinall’s eyes, leading to a no contest with 25 seconds remaining in the opening round.
While the fight didn’t get a clean result, Jones, who dismissed Aspinall as a credible opponent while he held the interim title, believes he learned a lot more about the English heavyweight champ.
“Tom’s a great athlete, but I do feel like he’s a one-trick pony,” Jones said on “NoScripts Podcast.” “I believe that his wrestling and jiu-jitsu is incredibly overrated. He has a beautiful 1-2. I got to learn a lot about his patterns in his last fight. That’s really about it. That’s the one thing that he’s setting up real nice.”
The fight was competitive while it lasted. Many expected Aspinall to blitz through Gane, because that’s what he’s done to virtually every opponent he faced prior – and also because Jones torched Gane in two minutes. However, Gane proved to be a formidable opponent, landing 30 of 40 significant strikes while denying Aspinall a takedown. Aspinall landed 27 of 39 strikes, according to UFC Stats.
“He couldn’t touch Ciryl Gane at all, that’s the way I felt,” Jones said. “I felt Gane was just getting warmed up. Gane’s hands was down, he was shaking his shoulders, bouncing around, touching him – he was so comfortable.”
Unfortunately, the fight was ended early due to Gane’s foul.
Aspinall has since shared multiple updates as he has visited multiple doctors about his eye. Meanwhile, Jones wasted little time trolling Aspinall by changing his social media avatar to a duck wearing an eye patch, and riding into the Dirty Boxing 4 ceremonial weigh-ins on a horse with an eye patch.
