Tom Aspinall on title defense pressure at UFC 321: 'That's when I've had my most devastating performances'

Yahoo

5 hours ago

At UFC 321 on Oct. 25, the heavyweight division will start the Tom Aspinall era properly. Aspinall's historically long reign as a UFC interim champion came to an end in June, thanks to the retirement of the now-former heavyweight champion, Jon Jones. Therefore, Aspinall was promoted to undisputed status, which allows him to return to action after the saga stalled his career for the past 13 months.
Despite Jones' departure from MMA, it wasn't long before the all-time great was enticed by the new prospect of potentially competing at next year's proposed UFC event at the White House in Washington, D.C. Jones appeared publicly at the ESPYs weeks after his announcement to share that he would be interested in fighting again, with the hope of doing so in the nation's capital.
UFC CEO Dana White, however, wasn't too keen on the idea, shutting it down because of his former champion's lack of reliability.
As the man tied to Jones since he claimed the interim strap in late 2023, Aspinall is done entertaining the thought of the once highly anticipated matchup. Instead, all his focus is on his next challenger, Ciryl Gane.
"Oh mate, it's just boring. It's just so boring. I don't even have a comment on it," Aspinall said of Jones' recent comments during his appearance on Monday's edition of "The Ariel Helwani Show." "It's boring as hell. Don't want to talk about it. I've already got a fight, so I'm focusing on that. That's the way I micromanage things so well mentally.
"For the next 10 weeks of my life, all I'm thinking about is Ciryl Gane and how to beat him. Even with his coach, what he said, I said, or didn't say, it doesn't matter. Because I'm fighting Ciryl and that's all that matters, really. No matter what anybody's said or done in the past is pretty irrelevant at this point, because we're going to fight each other, and that's all that really matters."
Theoretically, a Jones return would (and arguably should) re-open the door to the Aspinall fight, assuming he remains champion by that targeted July 2026 date. The thought of the matchup aside, the current heavyweight champion — a proud Englishman — isn't even concerned about the fantasy event on White House grounds.
"It has spent zero seconds in my mind. I'm not interested, mate. Not interested. The world shouldn't be interested either, because what's the point? That's false hope," Aspinall said of a Jones fight.
"[The White House] doesn't not interest me, but it doesn't really interest me, to be honest. I'll fight anywhere, it doesn't really bother me. It'd be a cool experience, but I feel like the Americans should get the shot at the White House. I'm not American. [President Donald] Trump and the political stance in America doesn't really bother me at all, to be honest. So yeah, I'm not really a big Trump supporter, or I'm not against him. I don't know anything about American politics. I'm not American. I don't live there. I don't do anything apart from pay taxes and fight there. Really, all that stuff is irrelevant to me."
Aspinall, 32, started to lose faith in a fight against Jones coming together before the latter officially called it a career. From there, it was onto what, or who, was next.
In this case, that was a big question that was ultimately answered in the form of an old pseudo-rival in Gane. The pair had been aligned to collide in recent years, and while it never came to fruition, Aspinall remained interested in how the fight would go.
At this juncture, Aspinall said, he was open to all comers once his latest negotiations unfolded.
"I said, 'Who do you want me to fight?' They said Ciryl Gane, and I said, 'Sweet. I'm in,'" Aspinall said. "I'm ready to fight absolutely anybody. We asked about, basically, a few options, really. At the moment, there's Gane, [Alexander] Volkov, or [Jailton] Almeida, really. That's who was available at the time that the match was made. So I said I'll fight any one of them.
"I'm not in the realm of dodging fights at all. I'm here to fight everybody and anybody, and trying my best. That's it. To do work, fight people, while I'm involved in the sport. That's what I want to do. I want to fight everybody and anybody that I possibly can."
Two weeks ago, Gane's longtime coach Fernand Lopez spoke on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show," expressing his displeasure with Aspinall's handling of the Jones saga. The coach said he believes that, given how everything has resolved and the hype surrounding Aspinall, there's now more pressure than ever on him to deliver against Gane.
Aspinall doesn't necessarily agree or disagree with the notion. But one thing the champion knows for a certainty is that he thrives under said circumstances.
"That's great because I fight really, really, really well under pressure," Aspinall said. "I've been around martial arts nearly my whole life at this point. There's the guys who I've trained with from my experience, who in the gym, are absolute killers, absolute world-beaters, and they'll get in a fight and they'll just freeze up and it doesn't work like it does in the gym. There's other guys, like myself, who are not that good in the gym, but get under the lights, get under the pressure, with all the chips on the table, and they get in there and do things that they would never be able to do in the gym. That is exactly what I do, and I feel like that's one of my biggest strengths.
"Any time there's pressure on me, that's when I've done my most devastating performances. And if he believes that, that's a fantastic thing for me."