Tom Aspinall doesn't want to hear Cyril Gane's excuses.
The two UFC heavyweight fighters have been at odds for years, but tensions escalated recently when Aspinall claimed Gane was offered the opportunity to challenge the Briton for the interim heavyweight title at UFC 304 on July 27 but declined to film a movie. It didn't take long for Gane to fire back at Aspinall's oversight.
“He only accepts my matches when I can't,” Gane said in a recent Twitch stream captured by French outlet La Sueur. “He often says that I rejected him, but the truth is that I have already denounced him on the network. Now that he is above me in the rankings, he has the permission to say 'no, no, no, no'. No problem, we will see each other soon.”
Aspinall, 31, is scheduled to defend his interim belt in a rematch against Curtis Blaydes in the co-main event of UFC 304, but he was outraged by Gane's words. MMA Hour.
“I don't think that's very accurate,” Aspinall said of Gain, “and I think Curtis knows it, is that the UFC didn't want me to fight Curtis. They wanted me to fight Cyril, but Cyril didn't want that. And I don't know what his schedule is like. I have no idea. He lives his life, he performs, and if that's what makes him happy and that's what he wants to do, I totally respect that. But stop acting like you wanted to fight me, because that's not accurate.”
“My schedule, my personal schedule, is to fight people. That's what I'm trying to do. I want to fight as many people as I can in a year in the sport of MMA and get as many wins as I can and make as much money as I can while fighting. Now, that's my goal. I'm not interested in movies. I'm interested in anything. I'm not interested in cruising on yachts or going to parties in Las Vegas or being in movies or all that stuff. I'm not interested in any of that. I'm interested in fighting people.
“So if [Gane said no] Because of the movies or whatever, I don't know, but it's not about me. I'm ready to fight. I want to fight people. I'm here to put on four-ounce gloves, shirtless, step into the cage in an arena, and fight a top-level guy. And then I'll see what that guy is like in those 25 minutes. That's what I'm really interested in. If that's not interesting to you, that's fine. That's fine. Do whatever you want to do.”
Aspinall is currently MMA Fighting's #1 ranked fighter in the world heavyweight division and #12 ranked pound-for-pound. Under the UFC umbrella, he is 7-1 with devastating stoppage wins over highly ranked contenders Sergey Pavlovic, Marcin Tybura, Alexander Volkov and Sergey Spivac. Aspinall's lone loss at UFC came in a 15-second bout against Blaydes in 2022, when Aspinall suffered a premature end due to a knee injury.
Aspinall has previously accused Gane of turning down multiple fights against top-flight players.
“He's put me past him so many times, I'm not the first guy I've put him past and I'm not the first guy he's avoided,” Aspinall told MMA Fighting in April. “Everybody knows that. The reason I won the Pavlovic fight is because [at UFC 295] Because Cyril didn't want that. So he avoided Pavlovich, and then he avoided Curtis Blades. Curtis Blades says, … I asked him years ago. [he] He didn't want it then. Then I called him in Paris. They flew me in and we tried to play the match, but he didn't want it then.”
Gane is currently scheduled for a rematch against Alexander Volkov at UFC 308 on October 26th.
Given Aspinall's history with Gaine, and the strength of the Englishman's opposition at Blades, Aspinall isn't going to waste any more time worrying about Gaine's whims.
“For me, personally, at least for the next few years, I'd love to take my shirt off, put on the gloves and try it with no idea who's going to win,” Aspinall said. “It's me and you in this arena, with 25,000 people in front of us, with a referee in between, with millions of people watching around the world. I'd love to try it in front of these people, right now. That's what I'm interested in.”
“what [Gane is] If you're interested, go for it, but don't act like you want to. [fight me]”I don't see it that way right now. Maybe in the future it will happen, which would be great. If it happens, I'll definitely do it. I want to fight anybody. I'll fight anybody. But I was ready to fight. That's it. If he wanted to, I was ready to fight.”
