Following Alex Pereira's loss at the hands of Magomed Ankalaev a week ago, Tom Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) now finds himself as the clear no. 1 contender to the UFC heavyweight title, held by Jon Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC).
Prior to Pereira (12-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) losing his light heavyweight belt to Ankalaev (21-1-1 MMA, 12-1-1 UFC) at UFC 313, it had been specualted that the Brazilian might leapfrog Aspinall to face "Bones", despite Aspinall holding the interim title since November of 2023.
With "Poatan" now seemingly out of the heavyweight picture, Aspinall took some time to reflect on last week's main event, which Pereira lost on the scorecards after five rounds. Many fans had expected Anakalaev to take the former Glory kickboxing champion down easily, and while Pereira defended all of the Russian's attempts at getting the fight to the canvas, Aspinall isn't so sure that Ankalaev's intentions were clear cut.
"I think that Ankalaev just had him guessing a lot with Pereira's level on the ground", Aspinall said during an interview with Jamal Niaz at Cage Warriors 183 on Saturday. "I don't know what level he's at, but I think he's still a bit wary of getting taken down. He definitely defended the takedowns well, but me with an educated eye watching it, I don't think Ankalaev was really trying to take him down that much.
"I think he definitely tried a couple of times. I think he did 10 or 11 takedown attempts, but I would say only two or three of them he went full blast. I think the rest of the time he was trying to tire him out with the grappling, standing, like the cage grappling stuff. So I think Ankalaev had the perfect game plan. He didn't overcommit, tired him out".
Aspinall Believes Ankalaev Won Convincingly
In the aftermath of UFC 313, there was plenty of discussion surrounding the result, with many fans feeling that Pereira may have been hard done by, something Aspinall disagrees with.
"I can't believe people watched that fight and thought that Pereira won" said the Brit. "It was just wild to me how many uneducated fans are out there. And how many uneducated fans thought it was a boring fight as well. I thought it was an amazing fight. Both guys did good. I think that Ankalaev was just a lot better than him on the night. That's it".
All signs now point toward a massive fight between Aspinall and Jones, but after spending the whole of 2024 and the early stages of this year fielding questions about the unification bout, Aspinall simply wants to throw down as soon as possible.
"Yeah I've had enough talking about it, mate", he said. "I'm honestly bored of it. We'll see what happens...we'll just see. I'm ready to fight whenever they tell me, so just let me know, I'll be there".
