ASPINALL AND GANE BATTLE IT OUT TO BE THE BADDEST MAN ON THE PLANET

The UFC Heavyweight Champion…

More commonly known as the “Baddest Man on the Planet” by combat sports fans.

This weekend in Abu Dhabi, the title will be fought for by two of the deadliest men on the planet — England’s Tom Aspinall and France’s Ciryl Gane.

Aspinall, who’ll be defending the title for the first time, ironically has never actually fought for the undisputed belt, whereas Gane has — back in March 2023, when he suffered a first-round submission defeat to the great Jon Jones.

No shame in that.

Now, with Jones vacating the title and Aspinall being upgraded from interim champ to undisputed champ, the pair will throw down on Yas Island in what looks to be an electrifying battle between the two best heavyweights on the planet.

Both with similar styles, they’re two big men who move like middleweights but bang like heavyweights — that’s why this is such an intriguing clash.

In terms of power, the advantage lies heavily with Aspinall.

Gane has only knocked out six of his 15 professional opponents to date, whereas Aspinall has stopped 12 of his 18 — including an incredible 10 first-round knockouts in his past 12 fights.

Both share the same number of submission victories, with three each. However, another telling stat is the fact that Gane has four decision wins on his résumé, whereas Aspinall has never been past the second round in his 18-fight professional MMA career.

In total, Gane has had nearly 187 minutes of fight time in the Octagon as a professional compared to Aspinall’s 42 minutes.

An incredible stat.

So, how is this fight going to play out?

On paper, you’d expect both men to want to keep it standing — certainly from Gane’s perspective, given that he hasn’t had a submission victory in six years.

Also, Aspinall comes from a BJJ background, following in the footsteps of his father, Andy.

He hasn’t needed to showcase his BJJ skills so far in his UFC career, as he’s pretty much obliterated everyone on the feet. But after seeing how easily Jon Jones was able to take down Gane and secure a first-round submission, it could be something Aspinall will look to utilise — and utilise early.

The difficulty that both fighters may have with each other is the speed. They are easily the quickest opponents either man has faced, and in the early stages of the fight, you’ll likely see both just try to adjust to the speed of each other’s hands and legs to ensure they don’t overcommit and fall victim to an early knockout.

Aspinall tends to start fast — hence why Andrei Arlovski is the only man to take him past the first round in his last 12 contests.

He’ll look to assert that dominance early on with his superior power, and if he lands one clean on Gane in the first round and the Frenchman doesn’t take it particularly well, the fight won’t go on for much longer.

For the Frenchman, he needs to take this fight deep.

Yes, Aspinall may be five-round fit, but we don’t actually know what he’s like after the second round, because no one has ever seen it inside a professional Octagon.

He may turn out to be stronger in round five than he is in round one — which is a bloody scary thought — but either way, Gane is going to need to do his best to avoid getting clipped or taken down early, and try to utilise his speed and solid defence to get through the first couple of rounds.

If — and it’s a big if — he can do that, he’ll have a much better chance of winning this.

One thing’s for sure: whoever wins, it’ll be one heck of a statement.