{"id":21536,"date":"2025-07-25T16:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T16:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/21536\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T16:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T16:32:12","slug":"set-it-up-joe-rogan-wants-tom-aspinall-to-replace-next-ufc-opponent-with-new-rival-it-isnt-jon-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/21536\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Set it up\u2019 \u2013 Joe Rogan wants Tom Aspinall to replace next UFC opponent with new rival – it isn’t Jon Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Rogan would have Tom Aspinall fight someone else next if the decision were in his hands.<\/p>\n

And the UFC<\/a> commentator and famous podcaster certainly makes a good point.<\/p>\n

\"Aspinall<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Aspinall was crowned the undisputed heavyweight champion when Jon Jones retired last monthCredit: Getty\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

The Brit had been the interim champion, defending the status against Curtis Blaydes in his last fight at UFC 304 in ManchesterCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

UFC CEO Dana White<\/a> confirmed this week that Aspinall will make his inaugural heavyweight title defence against the No. 1-ranked Ciryl Gane<\/a> at UFC 321 on October 25.<\/p>\n

But, combat sports enthusiast Rogan would have matched Aspinall up against a completely different heavyweight.<\/p>\n

\u201cAspinall is going to fight Gane,” he explained on an episode of the JRE MMA Show<\/a> with UFC light heavyweight Khalil Rountree.<\/p>\n

“If I were running things, I might set up the Derrick Lewis fight with Aspinall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might say, \u2018Forget Ciryl Gane, for now.\u2019 Derrick has just had this big knockout win. <\/p>\n

“Who\u2019s more popular and beloved by fans than Derrick? Set it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

No. 9-ranked UFC heavyweight Lewis is beloved by several members of the MMA community worldwide.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old made mincemeat of Brazilian prospect Tallison Teixeira<\/a> in his last fight, stopping his younger opponent inside 35 seconds of the opening round.<\/p>\n

He is one of the few fighters in the UFC’s top 10 heavyweight rankings who has not been matched up against and knocked out by Aspinall.<\/p>\n

Rountree agreed with Rogan, saying that Aspinall vs Lewis would be a ‘great fight.’<\/p>\n

\"Rogan<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Rogan would have matched Aspinall against a different heavyweightCredit: Getty\"Lewis<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Lewis finished Teixeira in 35 seconds at UFC Nashville in JuneCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

However, he explained why the fight with Gane just makes more sense from a business standpoint.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes sense to use Ciryl because of everything that he\u2019s doing in France,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the UFC expanding internationally, Aspinall is a British icon, [and] Ciryl is a French icon.”<\/p>\n

Gane has already had two world title shots, having lost to Jon Jones<\/a> at UFC 285 in March 2023 and to Francis Ngannou<\/a> 14 months prior.<\/p>\n

Aspinall has asserted that he will eliminate the Frenchman from the title picture once and for all at UFC 321.<\/p>\n

What is Tom Aspinall’s MMA record?<\/p>\n

It will be the Brit’s first fight since he defended his status as the UFC interim heavyweight champion in Manchester last July.<\/p>\n

Tom Aspinall’s UFC Record<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Seven first-round KOs<\/p>\n

W – Curtis Blaydes via first-round KO at UFC 304 in July 2024W – Sergei Pavlovich via first-round KO at UFC 295 in November 2023W – Marcin Tybura via first-round KO at UFC Fight Night in July 2023L – Curtis Blaydes via first-round TKO (injury) at UFC Fight Night in July 2022W – Alexander Volkov via first-round submission at UFC Fight Night in March 2022W – Serghei Spivac via first-round KO at UFC Fight Night in September 2021W – Andrei Arlovski via second-round submission at UFC Fight Night in February 2021W – Alan Baudot via first-round KO at UFC Fight Night in October 2020W – Jake Collier via first-round KO at UFC Fight Night in July 2020<\/p>\n

Aspinall exacted revenge on his only defeat in White’s promotion against Curtis Blaydes by knocking out the American inside 60 seconds<\/a> in their rematch.<\/p>\n

The victory moved the Englishman to 15-3 in professional MMA, with his UFC record standing at 8-1.<\/p>\n

Aspinall has since been embroiled in months of rumours and back-and-forth regarding a fight with ex-UFC heavyweight champion Jones.<\/p>\n

That saga finally ended when, out of nowhere, White announced Jones had retired at UFC Baku last month.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 32-year-old was subsequently elevated to undisputed champion and now makes his first defence of the title against Gane in October.<\/p>\n

Jones, however, has since reversed his decision to retire and is expected to feature on the UFC White House card<\/a>, alongside Conor McGregor<\/a>, on July 4, 2026. <\/p>\n

Tom Aspinall first title defence finally confirmed as Dana White announces huge schedule featuring Alex Pereira<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Rogan would have Tom Aspinall fight someone else next if the decision were in his hands. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[793,64,63,798,786,2765,11877,21973,785,85,21972,799,21974,787,1396,21975],"class_list":{"0":"post-21536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-aspinall","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-derrick-lewis","12":"tag-fighting","13":"tag-joe-rogan","14":"tag-jon-jones","15":"tag-jre-mma-show","16":"tag-mma","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-the-joe-rogan-experience","19":"tag-tom-aspinall","20":"tag-tom-aspinall-next-opponent","21":"tag-ufc","22":"tag-ufc-news","23":"tag-who-is-tom-aspinall-fighting-next"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}