The two heavyweight fighters, Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane have been at war for years now. Interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has accused Gane in the past of avoiding fights and even turning down other heavyweight fighters like Sergei Pavlovich and Curtis Blaydes.
The Frenchman took these allegations seriously and fired back with a post on X.
“@AspinallMMA, I never, ever say no to any challenge or any opponent. Blaydes was never an option. They said Pavlovich. I said yes. Don’t worry, I’ll see you in September. Stop tripping [round pushpin emoji] @Mickymaynard2 @danawhite.”
Aspinall went on to accuse Gane of cancelling a fight with him at UFC 304 to film a movie. However, Gane quickly fired back with a response on his Twitch stream.
“He only accepts my fight when I cannot,” Gane said. “He likes to say that I refuse him, but the truth is that I have already called him out on the networks. Now that he is above me in the rankings, he allows himself to say, ‘No, no, no, no.’ No problem, we’ll meet each other soon.”
The interim champion was not having this and shot back with his defense.
“I don’t think that’s very accurate, Aspinall said. “And I think what people need to understand is the UFC, and I’m sure Curtis is aware of this, the UFC didn’t want me to fight Curtis. They wanted me to fight Ciryl, and Ciryl didn’t want to. And I don’t know what’s going on with his schedule. I have no idea. The guy’s living his own life. He’s doing his acting thing. If that’s what makes him happy and that’s what he wants to do, I completely respect it. But let’s not act like you wanted to fight, because it isn’t accurate.”
“My schedule, my personal schedule, I’m trying to fight people. That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to fight as many people as I can in a calendar year in the sport of MMA, and rack up as many wins and get as much money as I possibly can get while I’m still fighting. Now, that’s my goal. I ain’t interested in movies, I ain’t interested in whatever. I ain’t interested in cruising about on a yacht and going to this freaking party in Vegas and doing a movie and all this other stuff. I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in fighting people.
“So if [Gane said no] because of something else, like a movie or whatever, I don’t know, that’s not my problem. I’m ready to fight. I want to fight people. I’m here to get in the cage with four-ounce gloves on, with a shirt off, in an arena, fighting another top-level guy, and let’s see who the guy is in this next 25 minutes. That’s what really interests me. And if that doesn’t interest you, that’s fine. That’s fine, man. Do whatever the hell you want. …”
Despite his eagerness to face Gane, Aspinall is content with preparing for his interim defence battle against Curtis Blayde.
“What I want to do, me personally, for the next few years at least of my life, is I want to do that — I want to take my shirt off and stick some gloves on, not know who’s going to win, and let’s find out,” Aspinall said. “There’s me and you in this arena now, there’s 25,000 people watching it, there’s a referee between us, and there’s millions of people watching in the world — let’s find out now, right now, in front of these people. That’s what I’m interested in.
“What [Gane is] interested in, go and do it, bro — but let’s not act like you want to [fight me] because you don’t at the moment. Maybe we will in the future. That’s great. If we do, we’ll do it, absolutely. I want to fight anybody. I’ll fight anybody. But I was ready to fight. That’s all I’m saying. I was ready to fight him if he wanted it.”
