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Heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall’s first title defense as undisputed champion didn’t got the way he wanted. The fight ended late in the opening round after challenger Ciryl Gane inadvertently poked Aspinall in the eyes rendering him unable to see and unable to continue.
Prior to the stoppage for the foul, Gane was clearly winning the fight. Former champion Jon Jones had seen enough to formulate an opinion on Aspinall’s abilities and they weren’t flattering.
“Tom’s a great athlete but I do feel like he’s a one-trick pony,” Jones said during an appearance on the No Scripts podcast. “I believe that his wrestling and jiu-jitsu is incredibly overrated. He has a beautiful one-two. I got to learn a lot about his patterns in his last fight. That’s really about it.
“That’s the one thing that he’s setting up real nice. He couldn’t touch Ciryl Gane at all. That’s the way I felt.”
Jones hasn’t stood across the octagon from Aspinall, but he has stood across from Gane. “Bones” made quick work of the Frenchman at UFC 285 to capture the vacant heavyweight title vacated by Francis Ngannou.
“I felt like Gane was just getting warmed up,” Jones said. “Gane’s hands were down, he’s shaking his shoulders, bouncing around. He was touching him. He was so comfortable.”
Related: Former two-division UFC champion warns Jake Paul: ‘You don’t want Francis Ngannou problems’
Jones last fought at UFC 309 last November, defeating former two-time heavyweight titleholder Stipe Miocic via TKO. It was Jones’ first and only heavyweight title defense.
In late June, Jones relinquished his heavyweight championship and announced his retirement from fighting. Two weeks later, he ended his retirement and re-entered the anti-doping testing poll in hopes of competing on next year’s UFC fight card at the White House. UFC CEO Dana White all but ruled out Jones fighting at the historic event, but UFC matchmakers will not begin booking fights for the event until February.
