UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall answered coach Fernand Lopez’s recent head-scratching comments.
Undisputed UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall will face two-time title challenger Ciryl Gane in his first lineal title defense at UFC 321 in October. The Aspinall vs. Gane fight will come to fruition just months after Jon Jones announced his abrupt retirement from MMA.
Aspinall has promised to rid Gane of the heavyweight title picture with a dominant performance at UFC 321. But this isn’t the first time that Aspinall and Gane have been linked to a potential fight, as Aspinall has repeatedly accused Gane of dodging numerous fight offers.
Coach Fernand Lopez didn’t take kindly to Aspinall’s assertions.
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Coach Fernand Lopez accused Tom Aspinall of ‘lying’ about past Ciryl Gane offers
Lopez, during a recent media appearance, accused Aspinall of lying about Gane turning down previous fight offers earlier in their careers. Lopez also hit back by highlighting what he feels will be immense pressure on Aspinall to deliver a big win after Jones’s leave from the division.
In a recent interview on The Ariel Helwani Show, Aspinall responded to Lopez’s remarks.
“My response to him is, with all due respect, and I respect coaches so much, especially really high-level coaches. But with all due respect, his opinion is quite irrelevant to the situation,” Aspinall said of Lopez.
“That’s great because I fight really well under pressure. There’s the guys 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 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 that’s one of my biggest strengths.”
Aspinall has responded to pressure well so far in his UFC career, but after Jones’s leave from the Octagon, his upcoming fight is under a big microscope at UFC 321. After months of waiting for a potential fight with Jones, Aspinall faces an arguable must-win situation against Gane.
Adding to the fanfare of UFC 321, Aspinall and Gane will headline a historic UFC card just weeks before a dramatic change for the promotion.
Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane will be one of the UFC’s final pay-per-views
As the UFC announced on Monday, the promotion has signed a new $7.7 billion broadcast rights deal with Paramount, set to kick off in January. The UFC will do away with its long-standing pay-per-view card system, and all fans will be able to watch all UFC fights for a subscription price.
Just hours after the announcement, some fighters questioned how the new rights deal will impact fighter pay, as the pay-per-view model fades into obscurity. Fighters like Aspinall and Gane will no longer earn ‘pay-per-view points’, effective January 2026.
While there’s still many questions left unanswered regarding the new UFC broadcasting rights agreement, it’s still early in the process, and we could get some clarity in the coming weeks.