Tom Aspinall focused solely on Ciryl Gane at UFC 321: 'Jon Jones is retired' |

05/09/2025 21:00 -

Tom Aspinall has one heavyweight opponent in mind: Ciryl Gane.

The two are scheduled to collide in the UFC 321 main event, which takes place in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 25, but they had a chance to share the stage Friday in Paris.

Aspinall has spent the better part of the past two years pursuing a bout with Jon Jones to unify their heavyweight titles (Aspinall carried an interim belt while Jones was recognized as the undisputed champion), but with Jones recently retiring, the path was clear for Aspinall to be promoted to undisputed status and book his next title defense.

At Friday's UFC 321 press conference, Aspinall made it clear that Gane is his sole focus.

"Ciryl's the guy I'm fighting, so he's the biggest test right now," Aspinall said. "Jon Jones is retired, so I don't really have much to say on that, to be honest. I'm fighting this guy and this guy's really good, so I'll be as ready as I can be."

The Aspinall vs. Gane matchup is not without its own history. The rivals have called each other out in the past, but the timing never lined up for the booking to materialize.

Now, with both men knowing what it's like to hold interim gold, Aspinall believes they'll deliver the best possible heavyweight matchup the UFC could put together. And that the best is yet to come for the division.

"I think the biggest difference is we're both better," Aspinall said. "We're both better now than we were a few years ago. We both have a lot more experience. Ciryl's had two title shots already, I've defended an interim title and now hold the undisputed title, so I think this fight's going to be better and I think it's pretty rare that you see any guys of our size that move like we do.

"I think this is really like the new age of the heavyweights and people are really going to start to see the difference between guys like us and guys 10 years ago."

Friday's press conference was light on trash talk—and almost light of any talk at all for Aspinall, who received a chilly greeting from the French fans in attendance.

"There was nobody else to fight," Aspinall said at the start before being drowned out by a chorus of boos. "I'll just let—Ciryl, you just do your thing, man. You just do your thing. I'll just chill."