Tyler Durden 
When Jon Jones retired — albeit very briefly — Tom Aspinall was finally promoted to undisputed heavyweight champion with his first title defense booked against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321.
While far from the magnitude of the potential Jones’ fight, Aspinall has a chance to truly cement his status as champion and help the division move forward with a new king on the throne. But after all the hype and expectation built around Aspinall for the better part of the past two years, what happens if he actually loses to Gane?
UFC legend Matt Brown argues that would be the absolute worst-case scenario for a division already dangling by a thread.
“The heavyweight division is on the line,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “If Gane goes in and beats him — no disrespect to Gane, love the guy — the heavyweight division loses a lot of respect. Even if Tom goes out there, and it’s a close fight or he gets dropped and then has to come back or something like that, the heavyweight division has so little respect right now, probably deservedly so I think even with Gane getting his third title shot in a couple of years, Tom has to show he is the heavyweight division.
“He has to prove that to the world. The heavyweight division’s not just shit, but I’m so good that the heavyweight division is shit. This is the thing he has to go out there and prove to the world. If he goes out there and loses to Gane, the division already is not respected, that brings Tom down significantly I think.”
It’s tough to disagree with Brown’s logic based on the current state of the heavyweight division where Aspinall has already dispatched three of the top five contenders ranked by the UFC with a chance to add Gane to his list in October.
Outside of the top five, there are no true rising stars at heavyweight with Waldo Cortes-Acosta arguably riding the most momentum off five straight wins, but even he hasn’t received that much attention, especially with decisions in three of those five victories.
Aspinall is far and away the best heavyweight in the UFC right now but losing to Gane would dramatically shift the narrative when it comes to how the division is perceived.
Add to that, Aspinall falling would effectively nix any chance he ever had at facing Jones, who has vowed to return to action and compete on the UFC White House card expected in July 2026. That’s why Brown believes Aspinall can’t just beat Gane — he has to demolish him.
“How he beats Gane, assuming he does, plays a factor, too,” Brown explained. “If it turns out to be a close fight, again Jon’s going to be on his phone with Twitter open watching this fight, just waiting for Tom to f*ck up and get dropped and get leg kicked and limping a little bit. Jon can’t wait for that moment.”
During his brief time at heavyweight, Jones became champion after he dispatched Gane in just two minutes and four seconds into the opening round after snatching a guillotine choke submission. There’s almost no chance that doesn’t get brought up to Aspinall consistently in the days and weeks leading up to the fight because his win is almost certainly going to be measured against what Jones did to the same opponent.
Perhaps that’s an unfair comparison but Brown knows all too well how the sport works and that just adds another layer to the pressure falling on Aspinall’s shoulders ahead of his next fight.
“This is the situation Jon was craving the whole time,” Brown said. “He beats [Gane] in two and a half minutes, and he’s like dust off his shoulders, all right guys, I’m out for a minute. What can you do Tom?
“It’s hard to beat a guy in two and a half minutes. A professional fighter, that’s not easy to do. If Jon fought him 10 times, he probably wouldn’t beat him that fast 10 times. That was one in those 10 times he beat him that fast. But now he did it, and he can say he did it. If Tom doesn’t match [that], you suck Tom, You just fought somebody worse!”
Even if Jones isn’t the ultimate prize in all this, Brown can’t help but wonder how much interest remains in the division if Aspinall loses and Gane becomes champion.
That opens the door to other potential contenders, but there’s also a world where Aspinall would just get an immediate rematch. Unfortunately by then, the almost invincible aura built around Aspinall would be broken and there just wouldn’t be as much interest in another fight with Gane.
“If Tom loses, his only option is a rematch,” Brown said. “How many people are going to care about that? What kind of a demand is there going to be for that?”
Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio
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