UFC 323 ticket prices, VIP cost, best seats, date and more for Dvalishvili vs. Yan<\/a><\/p>\nNow, with Jones out of the picture and a high-stakes clash against Cyril Gane headlining UFC 321, the pressure on Aspinall is immense. Why? Because in MMA, perception is reality.<\/p>\n
If Gane – in his third attempt at UFC gold – pulls off the upset, expect a social media blitz from Jones, who will undoubtedly point to his dominant win over Gane in 2023 as proof of superiority over Aspinall.<\/p>\n
The MMA math may be flawed – Gane beating Aspinall doesn’t automatically mean Jones beats Aspinall – but optics matter.<\/p>\n
In the court of public opinion, a loss to Jones’ former opponent could end the debate over who would win in a potential Jones-Aspinall super-fight.<\/p>\n
Styles make fights, and Gane’s elusive, technical striking poses challenges that Jones was uniquely equipped to handle.<\/p>\n
But nuance rarely survives in these types of debates and if Aspinall falls short, many will see it as confirmation that Jones would have had his hand raised – ending the discussion before it was ever settled in the cage.<\/p>\n
A win, however, keeps the conversation alive. Especially if Aspinall\u00a0can get the job in his typical emphatic fashion.<\/p>\n
Though he defended his interim title against Curtis Blaydes during the chaotic Jones-UFC negotiation saga, this weekend marks his first official defence of the undisputed belt.<\/p>\n
When looking down the heavyweight rankings, it’s hard to find a matchup where Aspinall wouldn’t be a heavy favourite.<\/p>\n
He’s already dismantled five top-ten contenders en route to the title, and with the record for most title defences – currently held by Stipe Miocic at three – well within reach, the path to heavyweight GOAT status is wide open.<\/p>\n
So the equation is simple: win, and Aspinall positions himself not just as the best heavyweight of his era, but as the man who retired Jon Jones without ever fighting him.<\/p>\n
Lose, and risk being relegated to the “flash in the pan” label that Jones has repeatedly thrown his way – all while tweeting his way out of the fight that fans still crave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Aspinall will make the first defence of his undisputed UFC heavyweight title this weekend at UFC 321…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-226514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}