It's safe to say that interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall is not too confident that the winner of Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic will face him to unify the belts following UFC 309. The two veterans are set to collide at Madison Square Garden where it's expected that both men will retire after the fight.
That leaves Aspinall likely looking at an upcoming clash between top contenders as his next opponent once he's promoted to being the full champion. At UFC 310 on December 7, former interim champion Ciryl Gane will make his return to the Octagon to face off with Alexander Volkov in a rematch.
Gane was dominant in their first meeting back in 2021 but a lot has changed since then, especially when you look at both men's activity. The Frenchman hasn't fought since September of last year where he stopped Serghei Spivac in Paris to bounce back from his loss to Jones earlier that year.
As for Aspinall's former opponent in Volkov, he's won four in a row since losing to the Brit with his latest victory over Sergei Pavlovich coming this past June. In a recent interview with CasinoHawks, Aspinall previewed the fight.
He believes that the recent form and activity of the Russian will make this fight far more competitive than their initial meeting at the Apex three years ago.
I think it’s a 50-50 fight. I know they fought before, and it was an absolute stinker—the first one was terrible. Since I fought Volkov, he's improved a lot. He’s changed his training situation, and Gane has been inactive. Gane seems to fight once a year against opponents who suit him quite well. It’s hard to say; Volkov has been very active. I think he fought four or five times since we fought a couple of years ago, which is a lot for an elite heavyweight. I still think it's a close fight, though, because I believe Gane is very good and smart, but I think it’ll be a lot closer than the last one, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Volkov pulled it off.