Tom Aspinall is charged with saving the heavyweight division.
The undisputed champion, who unified the titles without throwing a single punch (as predicted), will look to establish his dominance by turning away No. 1-ranked contender Ciryl Gane atop the UFC 321 pay-per-view (PPV) card later this year in Abu Dhabi.
But losing to Gane, who failed to beat Jon Jones for the heavyweight title at UFC 285 in his second unsuccessful attempt to capture the 265-pound crown, would validate all the dismissive talk from Jones after “Bones” walked away from the sport just last month.
That’s according to retired UFC welterweight, Matt Brown.
“The heavyweight division is on the line,” Brown told The Fighter vs. The Writer. “If Gane goes in and beats him — no disrespect to Gane, love the guy — the heavyweight division loses a lot of respect. Even if Tom goes out there, and it’s 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.”
Aspinall opened as the -350 betting favorite.
“How he beats Gane, assuming he does, plays a factor, too,” Brown continued. “If it turns out to be a close fight, again Jon’s going to be on his phone with Twitter open watching this fight, just waiting for Tom to f—k up and get dropped and get leg kicked and limping a little bit. Jon can’t wait for that moment. This is the situation Jon was craving the whole time. If Tom loses, his only option is a rematch. How many people are going to care about that? What kind of a demand is there going to be for that?”
There doesn’t appear to be much demand for the first one.
Outside of Jailton Almeida, most of the top heavyweight contenders have already been defeated by Aspinall or Gane, which doesn’t leave many options for either fighter in the wake of UFC 321 — unless Jones somehow talks his way into this heavyweight showcase.
Otherwise, we might be talking about this title fight for early 2026.
