Tom Aspinall has said he intends to “get rid of” Ciryl Gane from the UFC heavyweight title picture, when he defends the belt against the Frenchman in October.
Tuesday (22 July) brought the announcement that Aspinall will make his first undisputed-title defence in the main event of UFC 321, finally taking on European rival Gane.
The pair have been linked numerous times in recent years, with Gane and the Briton occupying top rankings in the division. Gane, 35, won the interim belt in 2021 but failed to unify the titles with then-champion Francis Ngannou in January 2022, while Aspinall claimed the interim strap in November 2023 and never got the chance to face fellow title-holder Jon Jones.
Jones’s recent retirement saw Aspinall, 32, elevated to undisputed champion, almost a year after he took the rare decision to defend the interim belt – which he retained against Curtis Blaydes in Manchester. Now, the Wigan fighter prepares to defend the undisputed title for the first time, in Abu Dhabi on 25 October.
“Finally we’re back, after over a year hiatus,” Aspinall said in an Instagram video on Wednesday (23 July). “Me and Ciryl finally signed on the dotted line.
“This is the fourth time we’ve been matched up together. He turned the fight early on, before we were both in the rankings.
“After that, he fought Spivac [in 2023]. I said in a post-fight interview after I beat [Marcin] Tybura: ‘I’m going to go to Paris, I’m going to be sat front row for Ciryl Gane against Serghei Spivac, I’m gonna beat the winner, and then I’m gonna beat Jon Jones.’ I went to Paris, Ciryl unfortunately turned down the fight on a second occasion.
“The third occasion, I fought Curtis Blaydes. The original opponent was Ciryl Gane. Unfortunately, Ciryl was busy that date. Ciryl was filming his Netflix series. I can’t remember what it’s called, but I’m sure you can check it out now on Netflix.
“And now we are matched up for 25 October, Abu Dhabi. Me and Ciryl, the fourth attempt is here, and this is Ciryl’s third title shot. So, we are going to try and get rid of Ciryl Gane from the title picture for good.”
Aspinall’s last fight was his first-round knockout of Blaydes in July 2024, as he avenged an injury-induced loss to the American from 2022. Meanwhile, Gane’s last outing was a controversial fight with Alexander Volkov in December, when the Frenchman outpointed the Russian for the second time, though many fans and pundits disagreed with the scoring.
Gane’s previous two undisputed-title fights were his points loss to Ngannou, and his first-round submission loss to Jones in 2023. The latter result saw Jones, the consensus greatest light-heavyweight ever, win the vacant heavyweight title.
Jones was then due to defend the belt against divisional great Stipe Miocic in November 2023, but he suffered an injury that delayed the bout by 12 months. On the night they were first due to fight, Aspinall instead faced Sergei Pavlovich, knocking him out in round one to become interim champion.
Aspinall then retained the interim strap against Blaydes before Jones, 38, stopped Miocic, 42, last November. Jones never committed to fighting Aspinall in a unification bout, and ultimately the American retired last month.
