UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall‘s first title defense is official for UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi.
On Tuesday afternoon, Dana White revealed via Instagram Live that Aspinall will be defending his title against Ciryl Gane on the Oct. 25 card.
The fight had been rumored for quite some time now, with Gane teasing news about his next fight in an Instagram post back in late June, and Aspinall repeatedly stating that his next fight was finalized, and it was only a matter of time before the official announcement.
Aspinall, of course, heads into his first undisputed title defense following an interim title defense last summer against Curtis Blaydes, which pushed his current win streak to three. Gane, on the other hand, heads into the bout in the midst of a two-fight win streak that most recently saw him pick up a controversial split decision win over Alexander Volkov on the UFC 310 card back in December.
In addition to the Aspinall-Gane fight, the UFC 321 card will also see Alexander Volkov throw down with Jailton Almeida in a pivotal heavyweight bout. Additionally, Aleksandar Rakic will fight Azamat Murzakanov at light heavyweight, and Azat Maksum fight Mitch Raposo at flyweight.
Tom Aspinall Reflects on Year-Long Hiatus
Although in an ideal world Tom Aspinall wouldn’t have spent the past year sitting on the sidelines, the champ recently spoke with heavyweight veteran Stefan Struve during a sit-down for UFC on Eurosport.
In addition to indicating that his next fight was official, the champ also reflected on the past year:
“I’ve just been training non-stop. I’ve been training pretty good. I’ve just been doing what I’m told by the UFC, which is stay ready. I’ve stayed ready for a year now. … To be honest, I’ve had a really good year in my life; it’s been a great year, but as far as professionally, I would have liked to been more active, obviously.”
With his first title defense now set for October, Aspinall’s hiatus is officially over.
Tom Aspinall Eager to Clean Out Heavyweight Top 10
With his fight against Ciryl Gane now official, Tom Aspinall can start to clean out the logjam of contenders at heavyweight.
As he indicated in an interview with Adam Catterall during an episode of One-on-One earlier this month, his goal is to clean out the top 10 over the next 12 months.
“I’d like to do 4 in the next 12 months. I don’t know how realistic that is. First of all, there’s not as many of us. If you look at the top ten, I have beaten 6 of them. My goal is to beat ten of the top ten. I wanna beat all ten.”
“My goal is at least three, maybe four between now and the end of ’26.”
While Aspinall has wins over six of the top ten heavyweights, he’ll have a chance to add another name to his list when he collides with Ciryl Gane at UFC 321.
If he emerges victorious, he’ll only need wins over Waldo Cortes Acosta, Jailton Almeida and Derrick Lewis before cleaning out the top ten.
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