“This Doesn’t Make Sense”: Weeks After His Dominant Win at UFC Paris, Ciryl Gane Gives a Blunt Reality Check to Tom Aspinall’s Call-Out

In UFC Paris, Ciryl Gane clinched a spectacular victory against his Moldovan opponent with a flurry of strikes. This was a worthy redemption since Gane had previously suffered a tough loss to the reigning UFC Heavyweight Champion, Jon Jones. Now ‘Bon Gamin’ is no longer interested in petty matches but aiming straight for the ultimate belt.

After Gane’s triumphant comeback against Serghei Spivac with a TKO, he responded to Tom Aspinall’s callouts influenced by Michael Bisping. Without wasting any time after stealing his win, Gane in a post-match interview has cleared the air on his intention to fight Aspinall and it is not what the English fighter was expecting.

Ciryl Gane puts out his take on a potential match-up against Tom Aspinall

The 33-year-old fighter recently sat down for an open conversation with renowned journalist Ariel Helwani on his YouTube channel  MMAfightingOnSBN. During its course, ‘Bon Gamin’ stressed that he is no longer willing to take any unnecessary risks in his career, emphasizing that it does not make sense for him to fight with Tom Aspinall. Gane expressed that being ranked number one, a match with the 4th ranked isn’t a risk he is ready to take. His eyes are clearly on the belt and he would rather fight the winner of the much anticipated Jones vs. Stipe.

Gane stated, “I know a lot of people talk about Aspinall but that doesn’t make sense for me. With my management, they did a really great job all my career, that’s why it was so fast. Now, I just want to go to the belt, I’m the number one contender, he’s number four, it doesn’t make sense. I just went down, I did it already, it was a big risk. Now, I don’t want to have another risk. I’m going to stay here for a long time. So, we will have time for Tom Aspinall for sure, it’s going to come. No worries for the people, we will do this fight, but now, my fight is not this one, I just want the belt and I want to go to the belt.”

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Gane’s comments clearly reveal that compared to his position before his bout with Serghei Spivac, he has now adopted a very different stance. After suffering a defeat to Jon Jones in March and relinquishing the belt in the process, the freshman had stated that he is no longer rushing his way to the title. “All of my career, I was in a rush,” he disclosed at UFC Paris media day, adding “I started MMA in 2018 and I did my first fight just after six months. Since this fight, I was already in a rush until today. So, yes, I want to take my time now.”

A Challenging Year for Gane: Title loss to a triumphant return

Cyril Gane has had a challenging year with losing a title fight against Jon Jones.  ‘Bones’ debuted in the heavyweight division, and dethroned Gane with a Guillotine choke. With this win, Jones became the eighth fighter in the history of UFC to hold titles in two weight classes.

After his defeat against Jones, Gane returned to the octagon in a UFC Fight Night event that happened in Paris. Ciryl Gane clearly came prepared, and outclassed Serghei Spivac en route to a second-round TKO win.’Bon Gamin’ vastly dominated his Moldovan opponent, with more strikes in total in the first round itself. The strike differential in either Round 1 or 2 is the most significant, as seen in the past two decades. In the end, Gane snatched his victory in just 3 minutes and 44 seconds, cementing his place back in the title race.

With his succeeding victory over Tai Tuivasa, Ciryl Gane has reclaimed his top spot in the UFC heavyweight rankings. The former interim champion now has his sights set on the undisputed title, currently held by Jon Jones.

Will Gane reclaim his title and become the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion, or will he succumb to another crushing defeat by Jones? Only time will tell.

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