"He moves really well, he’s nimble, super fit, super athletic" - Tom Aspinall admits Ciryl Gane poses a unique test he’s never faced before

Tom Aspinall recently opened up about his upcoming matchup against Ciryl Gane, emphasizing the Frenchman's abilities inside the octagon.

Aspinall is set to defend his undisputed heavyweight crown for the first time against Gane in the main event of UFC 321 on Oct. 25 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. During a recent appearance on the ShxtsNGigs podcast, the Brit highlighted Gane's movement in comparison to other contenders in the division:

''No, I think this is just another fight for me. I'm not like, I don't like to put that kind of pressure on myself. It's just like, 'I've got to fight, I've got an opponent, we've got to work towards that.' Cyril's like really good as well. So he's good. And I think he brings a whole new challenge that I've not really had before. The same that I have with him. He's just like, his style is different to a lot of heavyweights. He moves really well, he's nimble, super fit, super athletic.''

Aspinall continued:

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''I think we're both going to be in a stage where I think to get to him, we both need to be pretty exhausted. That's not something that I've really had to deal with too much before. What heavyweight is quite slow and bloody, he isn't like that at all. So I think we both need to, like, I need to be super, super fit and I need to get to a stage where both of us are slowed down a little bit before I get to him. I like it. New challenge. I love it.''

Check out Tom Aspinall's comments below:

Aspinall is currently on a three-fight win streak, the most recent being a successful interim title defense against Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 last year, where he secured an opening-round knockout victory. Meanwhile, Gane is coming off a split decision win over Alexander Volkov at UFC 310.

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Tom Aspinall believes an ex-UFC champion would have beaten him

In the aforementioned ShxtsNGigs podcast, Tom Aspinall said that former UFC double champion and Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier would have posed a challenge to him inside the cage:

''You know DC, Daniel Cormier? Yeah, peak DC has the worst style for me ever. He’s short, I’ve said this to his face as well, short guy who just keeps walking forward, changing levels in between grappling punches. He can knock you out. He can take you down. He’s got cardio for days. For my style, he’s a nightmare.'' [25:50 of the video]

Edited by Swagat Kumar Jena