Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane are expected to rematch “as soon as possible.”
Their first heavyweight title fight, which took place atop the UFC 321 pay-per-view (PPV) event
last Sat. (Oct. 25, 2025) at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE, ended in a “No Contest” after Aspinall got poked in the eye and was unable to continue. The reigning heavyweight champion was later criticized for not “fighting with one eye,” while others defended Aspinall against “little b*tches” with long fingers.Aspinall remained the
betting favorite for their inevitable do-over, opening at -175 against +150 for Gane, according to SportsBetting.ag. In the last 24 hours, money started trickling in (for both competitors) and now stands at -205 for Aspinall and +175 for Gane. Even with the recent movement, that’s a considerably tighter line compared to their first go-round, which had Apsinall at -370 opposite +295 for Gane.
“Ciryl Gane was on point — you saw the damage on Tom’s face,” one-eyed ex-champion, Michael Bisping, told TNT Sports. “This was not an easy fight by any stretch of the imagination. He didn’t want to continue with his vision damaged or not being able to see. I don’t blame him. The crowd were upset – I get that. They were frustrated. People might point to me and say, ‘Well you fought with one eye.’ Yeah, it was a secret because I shouldn’t have been fighting.”
“What makes it extra frustrating is all the circumstances leading into it, the time [Aspinall] was waiting for this moment and all the rest of it,” Bisping continued. “But it was turning out to be a tremendous fight. They went at each other. They went toe-to-toe. Ciryl Gane was standing his ground. He wasn’t dancing around, he wasting trying to avoid the fight, he wasn’t trying to make it boring. He was standing there and having to trade. He defended the takedowns, as well. It was really looking like a tremendous fight.”
Hopefully UFC can book Aspinall vs. Gane 2 for late 2025 or early 2026.
