Tom Aspinall is ready and willing to step back into the octagon … he’s just waiting on the UFC to say when.
The UFC heavyweight champion hasn’t fought since an October 2025 fight with Ciryl Gane that ended in a No Contest. Gane badly poked Aspinall in both eyes, resulting in a hellish several months for the British heavyweight and multiple eye surgeries. Eight months later, and Aspinall says he’s cleared to fight.
“We are just waiting for dates,” Aspinall said in a new YouTube video. “We told [the
UFC] we can do it in Paris, we can do it wherever they want. We’re just waiting for them to let us know.”
While Aspinall has been unable to fight while recovering, Ciryl Gane stepped back into the cage on the UFC Freedom 250 White House card where he battered Alex Pereira en route to winning an interim heavyweight title. Following that win, “Bon Gamin” suggested he and Aspinall fight at the UFC’s annual Paris show in September.
Despite repeatedly calling Gane a dirty cheat, Aspinall seems more than happy to cross over into enemy territory to fight in France on September 5th. The only problem? The event is technically a UFC Fight Night, not a numbered ‘premium’ card. The chances of the UFC agreeing to stage a heavyweight title fight during European primetime? Slightly less than 1%.
On the plus side, there’s the annual October event in Abu Dhabi coming up. That just happens to be where Aspinall and Gane fought to their fateful NC last year, and the UFC is always looking to put on a big main event for their earliest investment partners. Aspinall vs. Gane 2 certainly applies, and we’d peg Abu Dhabi or the November Madison Square Garden stop as top choices for this heavyweight title unification bout.
There could be one more hurdle to clear before you can safely assume Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane goes down later this year. The last time Aspinall fought was October 2025, before the UFC ended the pay-per-view model in their move to Paramount+. That means Aspinall’s contract needs to be amended to account for the lack of PPV revenue. Big Tom recently linked up with Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn, who has said the UFC has to ‘just respect the fighter’ in upcoming negotiations.
The UFC has an iffy track record when it comes to paying its top fighters what they deserve. This year alone they’ve shut down Ronda Rousey, refused to pay Ilia Topuria a premium to fight Islam Makhachev, and low-balled Jon Jones. Justin Gaethje got completely hosed when the UFC ‘fixed’ his contract for the first Paramount+ card.
On the other hand, Conor McGregor and Max Holloway both said they were happy with the amounts the promotion agreed to pay them. A singular occurrence, or a sign the promotion’s tight-fisted ways are not absolute?
We’ll see how things turn out this fall, but for what it’s worth, the heavyweight champ says he’s ready to fight.
