Tom Aspinall doesn’t want to take credit away from Jon Jones, but he isn’t sure Jones defeated the full version of Ciryl Gane to become the new UFC heavyweight champion.
Aspinall (12-3 MMA, 5-1 UFC), a top contender in the UFC’s heavyweight division, was puzzled to see Gane lose the way he did against Jones at UFC 285 back in March. Gane was quickly submitted by Jones in the first round of their championship fight for the vacant heavyweight title.
The Englishman feels Jones didn’t fight Gane at 100 percent.
“We saw from Jon Jones I think what everyone was expecting to see from Jon Jones, in my opinion,” Aspinall told Michael Bisping in a recent interview. “We knew that Jon Jones could do that. What we were unsure about, is how would Ciryl Gane react in that, under the pressure like he did – and it was very odd to see because I’ve followed Ciryl Gane’s career closely. I’ve known Ciryl Gane for quite a while. I fought like three of his teammates and stuff. To me, it looked – I don’t want to slag the guy off because I like Ciryl Gane, he’s a very nice guy, and he’s always been very nice to me.
“… To me, though, I don’t know, something looked off with him. I don’t know exactly what it was. He didn’t look – I don’t know. Like, obviously his grappling isn’t up to the level of Jon Jones’, but on the contrary to that, in my opinion, he’s one of the most athletic heavyweights that’s ever fought in the UFC. You see the guy on Instagram, 250 pounds or whatever he is, doing muscle-ups. Like, the guy is ridiculously athletic, but he didn’t seem to use any of that, which seemed very odd.”
Aspinall isn’t sure if the result would’ve changed if Gane fought the way that he usually does, but he does think Gane could’ve had a much better showing.
“If you’re not up to someone’s skill level, use your athletic ability,” Aspinall said. “He got taken down and there was no scramble there, there wasn’t any resistance. Just spaz out if you can’t get him off. Blast him off, use whatever you can to try and get him off, and he didn’t really seem to do that.
“It seemed a bit weird to me. I don’t know if he was injured or something was going on, I don’t know. I don’t want to put words in his mouth, I don’t know exactly what was going on, but he just didn’t look right to me in that fight. He looked a bit off.”
Aspinall hasn’t fought since suffering a 15-second TKO loss due to a freak knee injury against Curtis Blaydes back in July 2022. The loss snapped an eight-fight winning streak for the 30-year-old.
After undergoing surgery and rehab, Aspinall is now ready to return to the octagon. He expects to be added to the July 22 Fight Night card in London, but has yet to get an opponent.
Aspinall is determined to return with a statement and resume his campaign for the UFC heavyweight title. He really hopes that he gets to fight Jon Jones when he gets to the challenger role. However, Jones is just the cherry on top.
“Obviously, I’d love to fight him,” Aspinall said. “That would be my dream, to fight Jon Jones, but more so, my dream is to win the UFC heavyweight title. It doesn’t matter really who holds it at the time. It would be f*cking nice beating someone who’s considered the GOAT. That would be f*cking really nice, but at the end of the day, I want to be heavyweight champion. It doesn’t really matter who holds it at the time.”
