UFC 321: Aspinall vs Gane - Oct 25 ??

[Carbomb]

Not sure why it's nonsense for Aspinall to go to the PFL at some point - they pay much better than the UFC do, and if he's cleared out HW of any decent contenders, what else to do? Like wand was saying in another thread, what happens when, contrary to what White claims, the UFC stops being where "the best fight the best"?

Fighters either go for legacy or money. If the UFC stops being the best option in the world for either, and the fighter in question is too young to retire, I'd argue it's time to consider other options.

[Bus Surfer]

Aspinall more than likely got locked down when they made him official HW champ, so any talk of him going anywhere at the moment is daft. 

PFL to me just seems a stagnant operation. They have a weird money backing but so little fan fair and promotion that it seems a dead duck. The Jake Paul injection seemingly went nowhere and Ngannou also seems less than bothered with the whole thing and recently no showed a promotional event for them in Africa. PFL just seems coast on fumes without any real direction. It has a proper TNA feel to me. 

Edited September 21, 2025 by Bus Surfer

[Carbomb]

Fair enough. I wasn't saying he should jump in the middle of his contract though, I'm not that daft. Only Dana White lets his champions walk.

[jimufctna24]

My impression is that the vast majority of MMA fighters would ideally prefer to compete in MMA in the UFC rather than anywhere else. 

There was a brief period in the early years of this decade where some young Bellator fighters (McKee, etc) were content to stay put, and I can imagine there are Russian and Polish fighters making decent money in their native promotions, but these appear to be exceptions to the rule or brief deviations from the norm.

Even Nemkov admitted he would have accepted the UFC's recent contract offer had he been in his 20s. Ngannou appears far more interested in boxing than fighting in the PFL (can't blame him given the coin he probably makes from boxing). Elsewhere, the likes of Mix, Pitbull, Horiguchi, Asakura, and Pico have all recently made their way across to the UFC rather than stay in PFL/Rizin.

Thus if Aspinall does fight outside the UFC in the future, which I doubt he will for reasons already mentioned, I would bet he would appear on one of Turki's big boxing events, rather than in another MMA promotion.

 

Edited September 22, 2025 by jimufctna24

[wandshogun09]

Aspinall talking recently about the layoff, the improvements he’s made and the Gane fight.

Man, I didn’t think it was possible to dislike Jones more than I already did but every time I hear more about this situation he comes off as a bigger prick. For the UFC to be telling Aspinall the Jones fight was on and to start camp, “three or four times”, Jones must’ve been proper fucking them about telling them he was in, then he wasn’t, then he was again, rinse and repeat. The UFC letting him get away with that for so long is ridiculous.

Aspinall’s absolutely right about the pressure on Gane as well. I saw a clip of Gane’s coach Fernand Lopez on Helwani’s show and he was spinning it as if all the pressure was on Aspinall here but I’m not buying it. Sure there’s pressure on Aspinall, it’s his first defence and after all the Jones shite, it would be a bit of a disaster if he goes out and loses this one. But like Aspinall says there, this is Gane’s third and possibly last crack at UFC gold and after choking in his first two tries, this could well be it for him. Win or lose, it feels like Aspinall’s journey is just starting. Gane’s already got that stench of failure about him. Lopez’s comments were a bit alarming actually, just smacked of them relying on Aspinall folding mentally because they know it’s their best hope of winning. Doesn’t exactly scream confidence if you’re relying on the other guy going to pieces rather than what you can do yourself to get the win. 

[wandshogun09]

Fight week then. Been a couple of late additions to the card. Nothing major but adds a little bit of depth to the undercard, I guess.

Haqparast vs Salkilld and Walker vs Sutherland are the new fights. Like I said, nothing earth shattering but Haqparast vs Salkilld could be a fun scrap and I’m oddly intrigued by Walker vs Sutherland, for two reasons. 1) It’s Sutherland’s debut and he doesn’t sound like a bad pickup for a Heavyweight. And 2) I’m curious to see if Valter Walker can actually do the most silly thing ever and continue his streak of winning via first round heel hook. His last three in a row have ended like that, which is ridiculous.

Can he make it four?

I’m bang up for this show. It’s not the deepest of cards but there’s enough on there to like. Aspinall finally getting back in there feels big and the card being on at a nice early time for us doesn’t hurt one bit. Look at the first graphic above there, the prelims kick off at 3pm for us! Beautiful. 

[wandshogun09]

Triple post wanker (where the fuck is everyone?) just to inform you they’ve given Big Tom custom shorts that make him look like EDL’s bouncer…

[NeverYield]

War Aspinall!

[Bruce85]

Anyone know if TNT box office allow you to watch the fight later on? Mates birthday tonight so can’t watch it live so hoping to avoid spoilers and watch it tomorrow morning. Don’t wanna pay £30 to find out you can’t!

 

Big fight for Tom, must be a lot of pressure on him so will be interesting to see how he fairs tonight. I think he wins but seems a lot of people are overlooking Gane but I think Tom will be taking him as a threat and not looking past him. 

[Dai]

As Gane is an ice cold challenger, Im not super hyped for this one. Im sure when they are in the cage though, that will change as heavyweight title fights still have that special aura and unpredictability. Cant see past anything but a big Tom win here, but of course Gane has that heavyweight punchers chance. 

[wandshogun09]

1 hour ago, Bruce85 said:

Anyone know if TNT box office allow you to watch the fight later on? Mates birthday tonight so can’t watch it live so hoping to avoid spoilers and watch it tomorrow morning. Don’t wanna pay £30 to find out you can’t!

Can’t say 100% because I usually just watch live when I order on Box Office but I’m pretty sure you get all the replays included when you buy the PPV. Not sure whether you can just watch on demand whenever you want or whether you have to watch the replays at the specific times they show the repeats though. Shouldn’t be £30 though should it? Everywhere I’ve seen it’s £20.

1 hour ago, Bruce85 said:

I think he wins but seems a lot of people are overlooking Gane 

It’s funny because all I’ve seen this week on social media is people going ‘everyone’s underestimating Gane’ but I’m seeing it so much that it’s at the point now where I’m thinking, is he even being overlooked anymore? I’ve seen more of the ‘Gane is being overlooked’ posts than ‘Aspinall is gonna smoke him’ posts. Which has surprised me, to be honest. Maybe it’s just my timeline but it seems like half the fan base is talking like Gane’s the boogeyman and is gonna win tonight? Whether they actually believe that who knows? I suspect it’s more either one or a mix of a) people just saying that so they can act all smug tomorrow if Gane does win and/or b) Jones fans just praying Aspinall shits the bed tonight. If Aspinall wins they’ll abandon Gane and be full-on fanboys of whoever wins the Volkov/Almeida fight by tomorrow morning. Basically, I think we’re gonna go through this song and dance until Aspinall loses. Jones fans just hopping from one guy to the next hoping someone, anyone, beats Aspinall so they can sleep better at night.

While I’m here, here’s the usual fight day visuals. The card graphic, the lovely early start times, and the face-offs. Let’s just say the cameraman for the Jandiroba vs Dern face-off certainly understood the assignment…

Edited October 25, 2025 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

No live chat but just gonna throw in my picks before the last four fights go down. I’ve got Volkov, Umar, Jandiroba and Aspinall. So if you’re throwing a last minute bet in you might wanna go the opposite of that ?

[Bruce85]

Just got home and seen the results. Fuck me that couldn’t have gone any worse, even a fluke KO for Gane would have been a better result for Tom. Seen so much shit on social media already about Tom acting but fuck me the double eye poke looks horrible. 
 

After all the shit with Jokes ducking him and waiting so long for a fight, to have it end like that must be devastating. Also fuck the crowd for booing, what do they want Aspinal to do, go out and fight with no vision. 
 

What on earth do you do now though? I don’t think Gane should get a rematch, that was a horrible double eye poke plus that’s what 3 failed attempts at the title. Give Volk the next shot, he beat Almedia and let’s be honest he also beat Gane. I don’t like crying robbery in MMA and just because the fight is close doesn’t mean it’s a robbery but that fight was as close as you are getting to one. 
 

I’m rather pissed so hopefully that’s makes sense! 
 

 

[JakeRobertsParoleOfficer]

Really feel for Tom on this one.

Gane is a bellend and and should get a ban. Deliberate double eye gouge that could have blinded Aspinall

Not sure where they go now either?? Tom has beaten most of the top 10, Gane was stone cold before this one and Jon Jones is a c**t and messer.

Itll have to be a rematch  to clear the result up.

Id love Perreira but double standards Dana who has the worlds biggest hard-on for JJ wont let him move up as apparently too small....even though he allowed smaller framed JJ to (and all he did was take 3 years off and get a dad bod!!!) And Perreira walks around at a jacked 240.

Dana will probably find a way to strip Aspinall and give belt back to JJ!

 

[Supremo]

First time watching in ages, just to see how Tom got on.

Couldn't have gone much worse. Bad show. Bad main event. Left a terrible taste in the mouth. Not only the eye-poke, but everyone’s awful reaction afterwards, including Dana, insinuating Tom, “quit,” or, “wanted out.”

Not for me, Clive.