Washington — Following his finish of Alex Pereira in the UFC Freedom 250 co-main event, French heavyweight Ciryl Gane is looking to run it back with Tom Aspinall as soon as he can.
Gane (14-2, 1NC) spoiled the heavyweight debut of “Poatan” at the White House on Sunday, and in the process claimed an interim heavyweight title for the second time. That puts him in line for a rematch with heavyweight champ Aspinall, after the pair’s first meeting ended in a No Contest late last year due to inadvertent eye pokes.
Aspinall would later require surgery on his eye, necessitating Sunday’s interim title fight. Now, Gane is looking to get another crack at undisputed gold.
“As soon as possible, as I like the say in Paris for example,” Gane told media outlets including Cageside Press during Sunday’s UFC Freedom 250 post-fight press conference. “It’s a good idea, but let the staff of the UFC work on it.”
The Paris idea might be unlikely. The UFC just announced a Fight Night card at the Accor Arena in early September. Putting a title fight on that show feels like a stretch; it more than likely will headline a numbered event when it does happen.
There’s also Aspinall’s apparent contract dispute with the UFC. He’s being managed by Eddie Hearn, a boxing promoter who has become a heated rival of Dana White. Hearn has publicly decried what his client is earning with the MMA promotion.
White, meanwhile, admitted that when it comes to the rematch between Aspinall and Gane, “I’m not even thinking about that now.”
Addressing the fight, and Gane’s finish of the UFC’s former middleweight and light heavyweight champ, Dana White exclaimed “Yeah, Ciryl Gane. Listen, it’s hard to move up three weight classes in MMA, and especially in the UFC. And Ciryl looked great tonight. We always say, he’s a heavyweight that moves like a middleweight, and he definitely looked like one tonight.”
As far as future bookings, “I’m going to let my people have some time off this week and then we’ll get back at it and we’ll figure out what’s next.”
