Oct 22 2025 | Isaac Garcia | Sports Editor
The road to this year’s heavyweight title bout was certainly an interesting one. After Tom Aspinall established himself as an up-and-comer in the heavyweight division and secured the interim heavyweight championship title, Aspinall set his sights on Jon Jones, the all-time UFC leader in title fight wins. The fight was sure to be one of the biggest UFC events of 2025, with Jones at 28-1 facing off against Aspinall, whose average time to finish an opponent is at this time the shortest in the UFC, ending his opponents within two minutes and two seconds on average. There was a contract dispute, disagreements and just general red tape around the entire event. Aspinall essentially put his career on pause in hopes of getting his shot at Jones, spending months goading him into finally signing a fight deal so they could face off. But then in June of this year, Jones abruptly retired. Jones has since teased coming out of retirement, but still seems uninterested in the Aspinall fight for the time being.
So, with the news that Jones was no longer an option for Aspinall, a fight was eventually set up between him and Ciryl Gane for UFC 321, in Abu Dhabi this Saturday. Gane is 13-2 since joining the UFC in 2019. He last fought Alexander Volkov in December and won by split decision.
Currently, Aspinall is the favorite to win the fight, but don’t count Gane out. A challenge for Aspinall will be that he’s never fought in a title bout before, while Gane has. Not only is this important for the sake of experience on a large stage, but title bouts are five rounds of three minutes each as opposed to three rounds of three minutes each. This means Aspinall will have to come in with the best conditioning he’s ever had in preparation for a long fight with Gane if, in fact, Gane can avoid being knocked out at the hands of Aspinall like so many others have failed to do, he may have a chance at the upset. Gane has also only lost to Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones, two fighters who are considered among the best in the world. Aspinall does not have such matchups under his belt, and it’s worth wondering if Aspinall is as good as many believe or if he’s the beneficiary of easier competition.
Still, Aspinall should be the favorite in this bout, and while Gane may use his experience to make this interesting, one has to consider the quick finishing ability of Aspinall, making him dangerous at every moment of the fight. Aspinall, as always, is ready to finish the fight early. “This is Ciryl’s third title shot. We are going to try and get rid of Ciryl Gane from the title picture for good,” Aspinall said, referencing that Gane lost out on the title against Ngannou and Jones, and soon Aspinall will hope to add himself to that list as well. While the fight may not be a foregone conclusion, Aspinall is the favorite for a reason, and his only loss came against Curtis Blaydes when he injured his knee 15 seconds into the match. He then knocked Blaydes out within four minutes at UFC 304 in a rematch after his knee recovered.
Prediction: Aspinall KO in round two.
Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu
