As the dust begins to settle following last week’s news that Jon Jones has retired and is no longer the UFC heavyweight champion, one question remains: Who will Tom Aspinall face next?
Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) has been promoted to undisputed heavyweight champion following Jones’s retirement, having captured the interim belt at UFC 295 back in November 2023. The Brit then defended that belt with a knockout win over Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in October of last year. After spending months pursuing a unification bout with Jones, Aspinall now needs a worthy opponent for his first official title defense.
Two-time UFC heavyweight title challenger Ciryl Gane (13-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) believes he should be first in line. “Bon Gamin,” who previously came up short in title fights against Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones, has since rebounded with two straight wins. Speaking to Jim Norton and Matt Serra on UFC Unfiltered this week, the Frenchman said that the news of Jones’s retirement has put him firmly back in the title picture.
“Yeah, finally, we have some clarity”, Gane said. “And now we're going to play into something. Now we can see forward. And, yeah, who are you going to choose for the belt against Tom Aspinall?”
While nothing has been officially confirmed, Gane revealed that talks have been ongoing between the UFC and his management regarding a title fight against Aspinall in the near future.
“I just know my manager, Fernand Lopez, talked (about) matchmaking with Hunter (Campbell)”, Gane said. “And I know they worked on it this week. And yes, we keep in touch. Nothing (is) fixed yet. We're just waiting for some more discussion and maybe the location and the date. But yeah, we are really confident about this fight happening because we know I'm the number one at first, so this makes sense. This makes sense. And the number two is (Alexander) Volkov. He fought already against Tom Aspinall, and he lost. I won twice (since then). And the number three is (Serghei) Pavlovich. He fought already against Tom Aspinall, and he got some losses also, so who are you going to choose? That makes sense.”
