Newly-crowned UFC heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane blasted former champion Tom Aspinall, whom he called “mentally weak.”
Aspinall was poked in the eye by Gane during their title fight at UFC 321 in October 2025 and was forced to undergo three eye surgeries because of the injury. He was making his comeback to the Octagon later this year, but he received another blow to his eye during training, and he cannot get cleared to fight.
With Aspinall not able to compete anytime soon, he did the honorable thing and vacated his belt, which elevated Gane from interim to undisputed champion, which is ironic, given he was the one who caused the injury to Aspinall’s eye in the first place.
Ciryl Gane Rips Tom Aspinall
Speaking to Zack Nani TV, Gane didn’t mince words about his rival, labelling him as “mentally fragile” in the interview.
“We knew he was fragile mentally. We had guessed it, we suspected it. The guy complains a bit too much. You got poked in the eyes, you have a right to stop. If you feel pain, there’s an issue. There’s no need to do all that you did in terms of communication because it worked against you in the end. We saw the fingers, there’s no need to do all that you did,” Gane said (via The Big Lead).
“Ça arrive tous les week-ends, mais certains ont décidé de faire un focus sur moi en me traitant de tricheur.”
Ciryl Gane Playing the Villain Role
Based on these comments, it seems that Gane is leaing into the playing the villain role, which is interesting given he is taking on Josh Hokit at UFC 334 in his first UFC heavyweight title defense, a fighter who is extremely polarizing himself.
Gane might be feeling the way that he does about Aspinall, but given the serious eye injury that he caused his opponent, which ended up being the reason that he lost his belt, it would have been nice to see the Frenchman take the high road here about the Brit’s injury.
But for whatever reason, Gane is really tapping into playing the bad guy role, one that seems like a new role for him after mostly being quiet during his UFC career.
Ciryl Gane Blasts ‘Mentally Fragile’ Tom Aspinall