For Aspinall, it’s the opportunity to fight he’s been craving for months. The Englishman tore through the division to capture the interim title with a stunning demolition of Russia’s Sergei Pavlovich, then he retained his interim crown with a devastating 60-second finish of perennial contender Curtis Blaydes.
All roads seemed to be leading towards a titanic clash between Aspinall and Jon Jones, who at the time held the undisputed crown. However after some ducking, and diving (with Aspinall cleverly highlighting the “ducking”), Jones opted to retire rather than face the surging Englishman. The title was vacated, and Aspinall was duly promoted from interim champion to undisputed champion.
Both men are under pressure, in very different ways
Saturday night gives Aspinall the first opportunity to put that undisputed status on the line as he takes on Ciryl Gane, who is set to compete in his third UFC championship bout. He fell short in both of his prior attempts, losing to Francis Ngannou, then Jones as the former interim champion was unable to make that final step to the heavyweight summit.
But now, with a new champion at the top of the division, Gane has the chance to make it third time lucky – but while the opportunity is one he’ll surely relish, it also comes with a huge amount of pressure.
While the chance to compete for, and potentially win, an undisputed UFC title has its own pressures, for Gane, it could represent the last chance he gets to fight for the heavyweight crown. To try, and fail, three times, would put “Bon Gamin” in a tough spot.
Gane’s camp have been at pains to shift some of that pressure across to Aspinall this week, saying that the pressure of defending the title after such a long layoff will make life much harder for him. But Aspinall is a character that always seems to take everything in his stride, and even a terse meeting with Gane’s manager and head coach Fernand Lopes at the fighter hotel didn’t seem to faze him.
Aspinall heads into the bout as a 1/3 favourite to win the fight, but he doesn’t seem concerned about the odds. His time away from the Octagon has been spent sharpening his skills alongside a murderers’ row of heavyweight and light heavyweight training partners, including the most dominant kickboxing world champion on the planet, GLORY heavyweight champion Rico Verhoeven.
The big Dutchman knows a thing or two about striking, and said that Aspinall’s skillset is “elite”. The big question on fight night is how much of that striking we’ll see against Gane, whose best chances of success undoubtedly come in the stand-up.
Aspinall’s ground game offers the smoothest path to victory
On paper, and on tape, there is a massive skill discrepancy between Aspinall and Gane on the ground, and the most pragmatic approach for the champion would be to get Gane off his feet as quickly as possible to remove the threat of getting clipped, and to take the Frenchman out of his comfort zone, and into Aspinall’s.
But Aspinall, a former sparring partner for Tyson Fury back in the day, is also one of the best strikers in the UFC’s heavyweight division, and he’s certainly giving the impression that he’d have no qualms about standing and throwing leather with the big Frenchman on Saturday night.
However the fight pans out, it’s a huge bout for the UFC heavyweight division, and with top contenders Alexander Volkov and Jailton Almeida also set for action on the same card, it’s a chance for the UFC to hit reset on a division that has been stuck in limbo during Jones’ inactivity as champion.
The smart money says Aspinall will demolish Gane in a similar fashion to how he’s dealt with other contenders. Indeed, Gane isn’t as well rounded as the likes of Blaydes, and Aspinall needed no more than a minute to put the American away.
But this is heavyweight MMA, where one well-placed, well-timed shot can be the difference between victory and defeat. It should be a fascinating contest, for as long as it lasts, on Saturday night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KC2UwVCxZU&pp=0gcJCQYKAYcqIYzv
