UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall will finally get to defend his undisputed title, but not against Jon Jones. Instead he faces former interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane in the main event in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 25.
Dana White made the announcement on social media on Tuesday evening.
Months of will they or won’t they ended when the UFC announced Jones’ retirement in June. Jones then put out a statement shortly after White revealed the news at the UFC Baku post-fight press conference.
Jones has since announced he’s re-entered the testing pool, but by then the UFC had already made Aspinall the undisputed champion.
Aspinall has been out of action since last July where he beat Curtis Blaydes via TKO at UFC 304 retaining his then-interim heavyweight title. Fans, and the UFC for that matter, expected Jones and Aspinall would square up to unify the titles. After months of negotiation Jones decided to walk away from the sport, it only lasted a couple weeks, but he dropped the title effectively.
Gane is coming off a split-decision victory over Alexander Volkov last December at UFC 310. Without much clarity to the situation it was assumed that he could be the backup plan should Aspinall-Jones fall through. Once it did it seems that ‘Bon Gamin’ got the call to step in.
