Make no mistake about it, Tom Aspinall wants to fight Ciryl Gane, but it doesn’t look like the feeling is mutual.
Aspinall has been very vocal about wanting to fight Gane next as he looks to make his way to the UFC heavyweight title – so much so that Aspinall flew to Paris to witness Gane’s return fight against Serghei Spivac, which he won by second-round TKO.
But after UFC Fight Night 226, Gane said he wanted to sit and wait to see what happened in the upcoming UFC heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic in November.
Aspinall won’t try to force things, even if his No.1 choice is to fight Gane.
“I’m no bully,” Aspinall told The MacLife. “If he doesn’t want the fight, I’m not going to try and force it on him. I wanted to go in the cage. The UFC didn’t want me to go in the cage. Yeah, if he wants the fight, it’s here. If he doesn’t want the fight, we’ll see. I know I’m a bad matchup for him. I think that stylistically it’s a good matchup for me, but if he doesn’t want it, then I understand.”
If Gane insists on not wanting to fight Aspinall for the time being, the Englishman has no problem fighting someone few heavyweights dare to call out – Sergei Pavlovich.
“Well, that only leaves one guy left: the big Russian fella who nobody wants,” Aspinall said. “I’m happy to step up and take that. Like I’m more than happy to fight Sergei Pavlovich. I was supposed to fight two times before. The fights didn’t happen for whatever reason. Yeah, let’s do it. I’m happy to fight anyone that gets me close to the title.”
Tom Aspinall ‘more than happy’ to face Sergei Pavlovich if Ciryl Gane doesn’t want fight