{"id":234946,"date":"2025-10-23T11:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T11:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/234946\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T11:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T11:47:13","slug":"whos-next-for-tom-aspinall-if-he-wins-at-ufc-321-its-pretty-obvious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/234946\/","title":{"rendered":"Who\u2019s next for Tom Aspinall if he wins at UFC 321? \u2018It\u2019s pretty obvious\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

After nearly two years as interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall will finally get to defend the undisputed title at UFC 321<\/a> on Saturday, October 25th against Ciryl Gane. Many people are looking past Gane as a serious opponent, but not Tom who has praised his French opponent and dismissed talk that he needs a fast and furious win to prove anything.<\/p>\n

Another big topic of discussion as we roll into Abu Dhabi: who Aspinall could face next if he defeats \u201cBon Gamin.\u201d There\u2019s a lot of talk of Jon Jones and Alex Pereira, but neither man seems interested<\/a> in facing the imposing British champion. Instead, Aspinall is prepared to fight the next contender<\/a> who he believes will make himself clear on the undercard of UFC 321.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the UFC wants to do,\u201d Aspinall said during UFC 321 media day interviews.<\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s pretty obvious that they\u2019re going to do winner vs. winner of me vs Gane, and Volkov vs. Almeida. Not like a tag team match. The winner of us vs. the winner of them, that\u2019s what I think it\u2019s going to be next for the heavyweight title.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the most exciting option in the world. Aspinall has already cut through Volkov,<\/a> submitting the Russian via armbar in the first round of their 2022 fight. And Almeida? Daniel Cormier was caught on a hot mic sharing his opinion on how much of a challenge he presents.<\/p>\n

\u201cJailton can\u2019t fight,\u201d Cormier told Aspinall<\/a> in what he thought was a private conversation. \u201cYou beat him in the first round!\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspinall has only left the first round once in his five year stint with the UFC, so more first round finishes are almost the expectation these days. Tom is keeping things in perspective, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as being a long reigning heavyweight champion and stuff like that, we\u2019ll just see how it goes,\u201d he said. \u201cI am confident I am the best fighter in the division, but it\u2019s heavyweight MMA. You never know what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heavyweight has been such a turbulent division over the years that Stipe Miocic holds the record for most consecutive defenses with 3. But Aspinall is well positioned,<\/a> and not just because of his slick submission game and blistering boxing. If he beats Gane, he\u2019ll have already defeated the four top ranked fighters in his division, with only \u2018can\u2019t fight\u2019 Almeida left in the top five to face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After nearly two years as interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall will finally get to defend the undisputed title…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[139414,64,63,786,785,139415,85,138947,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-234946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-aspinall-vs-gane-start-time","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-fighting","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-preview-and-live-results","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-ufc-321-fight-card","16":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234946","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=234946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}