After Ciryl Gane’s win over Serghei Spivac at UFC Paris Tom Aspinall has said “If he doesn’t want the fight I’m not going to try and force it on him.”
Aspinall was in attendance to watch the French heavyweight beat Spivac via second round stoppage. The Brit said that he wanted to get into the cage, after the fight, to do a face-off with Gane. But the UFC were the ones who put a stop to that.
Gane was asked multiple times, during the week leading up to the fight, and after the bout, by Michael Bisping, about a potential fight with Aspinall. The Frenchman’s stance was that he was there to put on a performance that got him back in the title picture; he wasn’t focused on any potential fight between him and the English heavyweight.
The 33-year-old’s last fight, before the UFC’s return to Paris, was against the returning Jon Jones. The pair faced off for the vacant heavyweight title belt, in what was Jones’ debut in the division. ‘Bones’ won via first round submission after a limp performance from ‘Bon Gamin’.
“I know that I’m a bad match-up for him. I think, stylistically, it is a good match-up for me,” said Aspinall.
He added “If he wants the fight, it’s here. If he doesn’t want the fight, I understand.”
What Tom Aspinall thought of Ciryl Gane’s performance
Gane used a lot of body shots which eventually led to the stoppage of Spivac. Aspinall was impressed with Bon Gamin’s performance.
“Ciryl looked good. I was impressed with him,” said the 30-year-old. “There was a lot of pressure on him tonight, we didn’t know how he was going to look. But he did his job. He did what he was supposed to do, and fair play.”
What’s next for the British heavyweight?
He’s made it very clear that he only wants to be fighting against higher ranked people than him, from now on. With Stipe Miocic and Jon Jones set to battle it out for the heavyweight championship, at UFC 295, it only leaves one man.
“The big Russian fella that nobody wants,” is how the 30-year-old described Sergei Pavlovich; the one man left without a booked fight soon. The Russian is currently ranked as the number one contender at heavyweight.
He’s set to be the back up fighter for the Jones v Miocic clash in November.
Aspinall wants to fight once more before the end of the year. Everyone above him is tied up for the rest of the year, except one: Ciryl Gane.
Who would you want to see Tom Aspinall face next? Let us know in the comments below.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
