Outside Source
Ciryl Gane drew first blood on Tom Aspinall before their fight was called off. | Getty/UFC
Though Saturday’s UFC 321 headliner was but a small sample size, UFC CEO Dana White believes it showed enough to generate significant interest in a rematch between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane.
Of course, there’s also the matter of necessity: The heavyweight title clash ended in a no contest at the 4:35 mark of Round 1 when Aspinall was unable to continue after absorbing an accidental eye poke from Gane.
“I feel the way everybody feels. Great showing, s—y ending. I think that after the [Jon] Jones fight, a lot of people wrote Ciryl Gane off. He looked damn good tonight. It looked like we were in for a few rounds, and it was going to be a good fight,” White said at the UFC 321 post-fight press conference.
“I can’t make people fight. If I want to put together a fight, I can’t make people fight. You definitely can’t make somebody continue if they feel they’ve been injured. Only Tom knows what happened. Could he see? Couldn’t he see? Could he continue? Only he knows that.”
White did confirm that the plan is to schedule a rematch between Aspinall and Gane “as soon as possible.” The timing could depend on Aspinall’s eye, as the reigning champion said he was unable to see during the pause in the action before the bout was called off. Aspinall was transported to a nearby hospital to receive treatment immediately after the fight.
Yeah. Total pain in the ass but yes,” White said of the rematch. “They’re both in shape, other than whatever’s wrong with his eye. Both guys are not injured. As soon as possible.”
’The Rematch Is Very Interesting’
Gane squared off against Jones for the vacant heavyweight title in March 2023, when he was submitted 2:04 into the opening round of the UFC 285 headliner. “Bon Gamin” has since earned victories over Serghei Spivac and Alexander Volkov, but White still believes many observers were dismissing the Frenchman as a legitimate challenge for Aspinall, who had finished the majority of his opponents inside of a round.
In Saturday’s abbreviated affair, Gane outlanded Aspinall by a 30-to-27 count in significant strikes and bloodied his opponent’s nose — a rare sight thus far during the Englishman’s UFC tenure.
“I think that there probably will be a lot more interest in the rematch after [fans] saw he had Tom bloodied up,” White said. “Tom didn’t want to continue in the fight. The rematch is very interesting.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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