{"id":31898,"date":"2025-07-29T13:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T13:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/31898\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T13:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T13:30:08","slug":"matt-brown-argues-tom-aspinall-absolutely-cannot-lose-to-ciryl-gane-ufc-heavyweight-division-is-on-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/31898\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Brown argues Tom Aspinall absolutely cannot lose to Ciryl Gane: UFC heavyweight division \u2018is on the line\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jon Jones<\/a> retired \u2014 albeit very briefly<\/a> \u2014 Tom Aspinall<\/a> was finally promoted to undisputed heavyweight champion with his first title defense booked against Ciryl Gane<\/a> at UFC 321<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While far from the magnitude of the potential Jones\u2019 fight, Aspinall has a chance to truly cement his status as champion and help the division move forward with a new king on the throne. But after all the hype and expectation built around Aspinall for the better part of the past two years, what happens if he actually loses to Gane?<\/p>\n

UFC legend Matt Brown<\/a> argues that would be the absolute worst-case scenario for a division already dangling by a thread.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe heavyweight division is on the line,\u201d Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. \u201cIf Gane goes in and beats him \u2014 no disrespect to Gane, love the guy \u2014 the heavyweight division loses a lot of respect. Even if Tom goes out there, and it\u2019s a close fight or he gets dropped and then has to come back or something like that, the heavyweight division has so little respect right now, probably deservedly so I think even with Gane getting his third title shot in a couple of years, Tom has to show he is the heavyweight division.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has to prove that to the world. The heavyweight division\u2019s not just shit, but I\u2019m so good that the heavyweight division is shit. This is the thing he has to go out there and prove to the world. If he goes out there and loses to Gane, the division already is not respected, that brings Tom down significantly I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough to disagree with Brown\u2019s logic based on the current state of the heavyweight division where Aspinall has already dispatched three of the top five contenders ranked by the UFC with a chance to add Gane to his list in October.<\/p>\n

Outside of the top five, there are no true rising stars at heavyweight with Waldo Cortes-Acosta<\/a> arguably riding the most momentum off five straight wins, but even he hasn\u2019t received that much attention, especially with decisions in three of those five victories.<\/p>\n

Aspinall is far and away the best heavyweight in the UFC right now but losing to Gane would dramatically shift the narrative when it comes to how the division is perceived.<\/p>\n

Add to that, Aspinall falling would effectively nix any chance he ever had at facing Jones, who has vowed to return to action and compete on the UFC White House card expected in July 2026. That\u2019s why Brown believes Aspinall can\u2019t just beat Gane \u2014 he has to demolish him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow he beats Gane, assuming he does, plays a factor, too,\u201d Brown explained. \u201cIf it turns out to be a close fight, again Jon\u2019s going to be on his phone with Twitter open watching this fight, just waiting for Tom to f*ck up and get dropped and get leg kicked and limping a little bit. Jon can\u2019t wait for that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his brief time at heavyweight, Jones became champion after he dispatched Gane in just two minutes and four seconds into the opening round after snatching a guillotine choke submission. There\u2019s almost no chance that doesn\u2019t get brought up to Aspinall consistently in the days and weeks leading up to the fight because his win is almost certainly going to be measured against what Jones did to the same opponent.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that\u2019s an unfair comparison but Brown knows all too well how the sport works and that just adds another layer to the pressure falling on Aspinall\u2019s shoulders ahead of his next fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the situation Jon was craving the whole time,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHe beats [Gane] in two and a half minutes, and he\u2019s like dust off his shoulders, all right guys, I\u2019m out for a minute. What can you do Tom?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to beat a guy in two and a half minutes. A professional fighter, that\u2019s not easy to do. If Jon fought him 10 times, he probably wouldn\u2019t beat him that fast 10 times. That was one in those 10 times he beat him that fast. But now he did it, and he can say he did it. If Tom doesn\u2019t match [that], you suck Tom, You just fought somebody worse!\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if Jones isn\u2019t the ultimate prize in all this, Brown can\u2019t help but wonder how much interest remains in the division if Aspinall loses and Gane becomes champion.<\/p>\n

That opens the door to other potential contenders, but there\u2019s also a world where Aspinall would just get an immediate rematch. Unfortunately by then, the almost invincible aura built around Aspinall would be broken and there just wouldn\u2019t be as much interest in another fight with Gane.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Tom loses, his only option is a rematch,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHow many people are going to care about that? What kind of a demand is there going to be for that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Google Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, and iHeartRadio<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Jon Jones retired \u2014 albeit very briefly \u2014 Tom Aspinall was finally promoted to undisputed heavyweight champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[24523,13808,4224,14969,49,48,24524,15333,24525,641,700,15334,1855,4084,701,16144,15449,7663,638,8076,1394,329,82,1462,696,4223,640,702],"class_list":["post-31898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-absolutely","tag-argues","tag-aspinall","tag-brown","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cannot","tag-ciryl","tag-division","tag-fighting","tag-front-page","tag-gane","tag-heavyweight","tag-is","tag-latest-news","tag-line","tag-lose","tag-matt","tag-mma","tag-mma-fighting-podcast-network","tag-on","tag-podcasts","tag-sports","tag-the","tag-to","tag-tom","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31898","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=31898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}