{"id":739554,"date":"2026-06-16T06:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T06:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/739554\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T06:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T06:04:26","slug":"tom-aspinall-accepts-ciryl-gane-heavyweight-title-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/739554\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Aspinall accepts Ciryl Gane heavyweight title challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UFC <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnews.com\/division\/heavyweight\/\" class=\"internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash\/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">heavyweight<\/a> champion Tom Aspinall has agreed to defend his belt against Ciryl Gane in Paris this September.<\/p>\n<p>Aspinall responded to Gane&#8217;s recent challenge with a simple message, telling ESPN, &#8220;I&#8217;ll be there.&#8221; The Brit confirmed he&#8217;s ready to fight the French contender on home soil after Gane pushed for a title shot following recent wins.<\/p>\n<p>Gane-Aspinall matchup could headline Paris card<\/p>\n<p>The September date would mark Aspinall&#8217;s first defense of the undisputed <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnews.com\/division\/heavyweight\/\" class=\"internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash\/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">heavyweight<\/a> strap since claiming it earlier this year. Gane, a former interim champion, has lobbied hard for the opportunity to reclaim gold in front of a French crowd.<\/p>\n<p>No official announcement has come from the UFC, though Aspinall&#8217;s public acceptance moves the bout closer to confirmation. The promotion typically stages a major card in Paris each fall, making the timeline feasible for both camps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sources-heading\">Reported via:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/ufc\/story\/_\/id\/49075259\/ufc-heavyweight-champ-tom-aspinall-accepts-ciryl-gane-challenge-there\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ESPN MMA<\/a> \u2014 Aspinall accepts Gane challenge: &#8216;I&#8217;ll be there&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has agreed to defend his belt against Ciryl Gane in Paris this September.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-739554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739554","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=739554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}