Tom Aspinall is able to lastly get his fingers on Ciryl Gane.
UFC CEO Dana White introduced on Tuesday that Aspinall defends his undisputed heavyweight title for the primary time in opposition to Gane in the principle occasion of UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi.
On his Instagram, Aspinall reacted to the information, after which claimed that Gane had turned down a number of battle gives to face him prior to now.
“Lastly we’re again after over a 12 months hiatus,” Aspinall stated. “Me and Ciryl Gane lastly signed on the dotted line. That is the fourth time we’ve been matched up collectively. He turned me down [for a] battle early on, earlier than we had been within the rankings.
“After that, he fought [Serghei] Spivac. I stated in a post-fight interview after I beat [Marcin] Tybura [that I was going to fight the winner of that fight at UFC Paris]. I went to Paris, Ciryl, sadly, turned down the battle on a second event.”
Aspinall captured the interim heavyweight title with a fast knockout of Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 in November 2023, then needed to defend that title in opposition to Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in July 2024, incomes one other quick end. From there, the apparent battle to make was Aspinall dealing with Jon Jones to unify the heavyweight title, however Jones went on to face Stipe Miocic as a substitute this previous November at UFC 309. White revealed following UFC Baku that Jones had retired and Aspinall was promoted to undisputed champion.
The heavyweight division can lastly transfer on with Jones out of the image at present, and Aspinall is prepared to try this. The U.Ok. standout says that his first interim title protection was initially alleged to be in opposition to Gane, and never Blaydes.
“The unique opponent was Ciryl Gane. Sadly, Ciryl was busy that date [and] was filming his Netflix collection. … And now we’re matched up for the twenty fifth of October, Abu Dhabi. Me and Ciryl, the fourth try is right here, and that is Ciryl’s third title shot.
“We’re going to attempt to eliminate Ciryl Gane from the title image for good.”
