Tom Aspinall believes he knows who will be crowned the new UFC interim heavyweight champion on the White House lawn.
Speaking on the co-main event matchup of UFC Freedom 250 for the first time, Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) gave a solid breakdown of the matchup between former interim heavyweight champ Ciryl Gane and former middleweight and light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira.
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“First of all, he’s an absolute generational talent, Alex Pereira,” Aspinall said on “Fight Your Corner Podcast.” “If he wins this fight, even though it’s an interim title, it’ll be the first person to ever win three different weights, which is unbelievable.
“He’s massive. First of all, I have no idea how he made middle(weight), ’cause he’s like my height. He’s maybe a little bit shorter than me, 6’4″, 6’5″. Massive weight cuts, and now he’s fighting at heavyweight.”
The heated rivalry between Pereira (13-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) and former middleweight titleholder Israel Adesanya seems like ages ago at this point. Since then, “Poatan” moved up to light heavyweight, won that title, defended it three times, and then reclaimed the title after dropping it to Magomed Ankalaev. Now he has his eyes set on making history, but will face a tough opponent in Gane (13-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC), who presents a unique challenge.
“(Pereira) carries a lot of power at light heavy and middle, but he’s also fighting a lot smaller guys whose punch resistance is a lot less,” Aspinall said. “So, in my opinion, a big factor of why he’s knocking these guys out is ’cause he’s a lot bigger than them. A guy like Ciryl Gane who’s used to taking punches off big, big heavyweights – like he didn’t get hurt off Francis Ngannou for five rounds, which is one of the biggest punchers in the division. I don’t know if his punch resistance will be as good at heavyweight.
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“Also, Alex Pereira is very good when he fights light heavyweights or middleweights who don’t move a lot. Ciryl Gane is a massive heavyweight who moves a lot – moves really well. Really, really fluid on his feet, in and out, judges the distance really well, and stuff like that. So, stylistically, I think it’s a good matchup for Gane. That being said, Gane doesn’t like leg kicks. He doesn’t fare well against leg kicks. He’s a good kicker, but if someone kicks him, his leg kick defense isn’t great. Alex Pereira, unbelievable leg kicker. … That’s how he sets up the left hook, is he kicks them to the calf, stops the movement a little bit, then comes in with the left hook.”
Aspinall sees areas where both fighters can get the job done, so he’s not overly confident in his pick. Looking ahead to a title unification bout, he likes the potential matchups against both fighters as well, for different reasons.
“The Gane and Pereira fight, I struggle to pick a winner at this stage, to be honest,” Aspinall said. “… I want revenge (against Gane), of course, but there’s an argument to say that me and Pereira would be a bigger fight. I don’t know. They’re both big fights, aren’t they?
“… I would say Gane by points. I think he’s just going to move too much for him and beat him on points, I think.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Tom Aspinall breaks down Ciryl Gane vs. Alex Pereira interim title fight
