With heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall still recovering from an eye injury suffered in his UFC 321 title defense against Ciryl Gane, the fight promotion will crown an interim champion on Sunday in the UFC Freedom 250 co-main event.
Gane, a former interim champion and title challenger, faces former two-division titleholder Alex Pereira on the South Lawn of The White House with the interim belt up for grabs.
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Aspinall is expected to take on the winner once he’s medically cleared and will be keeping a close eye on the fight. The heavyweight champ broke down the matchup on his YouTube channel and gave his prediction for the outcome.
“This is a big fight. This is a big, big, huge fight. This is the guy that I’m going to fight. I’m going to fight the winner, obviously. Interested. Very interested,” said Aspinall.
“Alex Pereira, absolutely wrecking matching at middleweight and light heavyweight. How does he look at heavyweight? Because that’s a different thing that is especially fighting a guy who is naturally big and moves really well like Ciryl Gane. I’m super, super interested in it. I don’t know how it’s going to go. There’s a lot of Chama fans out there I see who think this is going to be a walkover. I don’t think it is, personally.”
“I think it should be a good heavyweight fight. And I think the most interesting thing for me is when you start changing your body composition and you go up massively in weight, how does that look down the stretch in a five-round fight when you’re fighting a guy that moves a lot? That’s the interesting thing for me. I’m not doubting Alex Pereira’s power. I’m not doubting his skill set. What I am questionable of is the change in body composition in 25 minutes. How does that look,” Aspinall questioned.
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Aspinall expects the fight to play out like a kickboxing match with small gloves. He sees paths to victory for both me, but expects Gane to walk away with the win.
“Prediction could go either way for me. I wouldn’t be surprised either way,” Aspinall said. “If I were leaning one way, it would be Ciryl Gane on points. If I was leaning a particular way. I wouldn’t be surprised if Alex knocked him out, though either. But I’d definitely lean more towards Gane on points.”
