Jon Jones on Tom Aspinall: “He Couldn’t Touch Ciryl Gane at All”

Jon Jones says he learned a lot from watching Tom Aspinall’s performance at UFC 321.

Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) attempted to make the first successful defense of the UFC heavyweight title he inherited from Jones in Abu Dhabi, but the fight ended in a no contest after Ciryl Gane (13-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) accidentally poked him in the eye late in the opening round.

While the bout didn’t produce a definitive result, the 4 minutes and 35 seconds we did see offered a slightly longer look at Aspinall than usual, given his recent inactivity and tendency to finish fights quickly.

"Tom's a great athlete, but I do feel like he's a one-trick pony," Jones said on NoScripts Podcast. "I believe that his wrestling and jiu-jitsu is incredibly overrated. He has a beautiful 1-2. I got to learn a lot about his patterns in his last fight. That's really about it. That's the one thing that he's setting up real nice."

Aspinall has faced criticism since UFC 321, with some fans claiming he chose to quit after the eye poke, as the opening round didn’t appear to be going his way. While that notion may be far-fetched, Jones agrees that Gane was in control of the fight.

"He couldn't touch Ciryl Gane at all, that's the way I felt," Jones said. "I felt Gane was just getting warmed up. Gane's hands was down, he was shaking his shoulders, bouncing around, touching him – he was so comfortable."

"I've Beaten Many Brazilians"

As for Jones, he doubled down on his plans to make a return to the Octagon when the UFC hosts an event at the White House in 2026, and he has the perfect opponent in mind.

“I'd like to fight Alex Pereira at the White House,” said the former 2-weight champion. “I feel like he's incredibly respectful. I feel like he's a household name in America, in MMA. Everybody knows who he is. He's a champion. He's in the conversation of being one of the greatest fighters of all time. It would be a blockbuster event. I think the whole world would come out.

“I've beat many Brazilians over the course of my life. Either way that fight were to go, no one loses in that fight. It generates so many millions for the sport. There is just no losing when you have such high-level people competing who respect each other.”