Tom Aspinall: 'Ring rust is all mental'

Heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has spent the last year expecting a title unification fight against Jon Jones to be announced. The match never came to fruition.

Jones announced his retirement in late June and Aspinall was elevated from the interim titleholder to the undisputed champion. It didn’t take long after Jones’ retirement from UFC matchmakers to book Aspinall’s first title defense as the undisputed titleholder. The hard-hitting Brit takes on former interim champion Ciryl Gane in the UFC 321 main event on Oct. 25 in Abu Dhabi and doesn’t think the time off will be a factor.  

“I’ve had big breaks before. This isn’t. I’ve had three and a half years off of MMA fighting before, so this is no problem for me,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel. “Ring rust is all mental anyway, so I’m happy just to get back in there, get stuff moving and get active again.”

While Aspinall hasn’t fought in over a year, he has been training the entire time. He stayed ready for the call and worked to improve areas of his game. In the end, the layoff could have been beneficial.

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“We can expect an improved version of me. I’ve had a year to train. I’ve had a year to test my skills and improve and I’m going to show everyone what that’s all about on the 25th of October,” he said. 

Aspinall anticipates an exciting fight against Gane in Abu Dhabi. He believes Gane’s weaknesses can be exploited. 

“I think it’s going to be one of the most exciting heavyweight fights ever. I think we’re very, very evenly matched. I think he’s weaknesses work to my strengths,” Aspinall said. “It’s just going to be a crazy bit of heavyweight action for everybody to see.”

Gane last fought in December at UFC 310 picking up a controversial decision win over Alexander Volkov. 

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