Tom Aspinall says there is exactly one heavyweight on the UFC roster he would never agree to fight. GiveMeSport reported Wednesday that the Englishman singled out that fighter as the only name he’d turn down. The portion of the report available to us does not identify who it is, and I’m not going to guess, because guessing is how I lose money on Saturdays.
The timing is the interesting part. Aspinall isn’t turning down fights from a position of strength right now. He’s turning them down from the sidelines. Yahoo Sports noted this week that Aspinall vacated the heavyweight title after suffering another eye injury, a chain of events that traces back to UFC 321, when Ciryl Gane accidentally poked him in the eye. That one foul sent his reign sideways and eventually handed Gane the top spot.
Gane had already won the interim belt by stopping Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250, and he was elevated to undisputed champion once Aspinall gave up the title. His first defense comes Nov. 14 at UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden against Josh Hokit, who is 10-0 as a pro and 4-0 in the UFC. Ariel Helwani has been grumbling about how many current belts changed hands without anyone beating the champ, writing on X, “To me, you should have to beat the champ to become the champ.” Heavyweight is the poster child for that complaint. Francis Ngannou, who beat Stipe Miocic at UFC 260, remains the last man to win the heavyweight title by beating the guy holding it.
The rankings still respect Aspinall. The UFC Meta Rankings, updated after UFC 332, list him at No. 1 behind Gane, with Sergei Pavlovich at No. 2 and Pereira at No. 3. Aspinall already owns a win over Pavlovich at UFC 295, the fight that snapped the Russian’s six-fight knockout streak. Pavlovich has since rebuilt, riding three straight wins and holding a 9-3 UFC record with seven knockouts, and he meets Pereira in a five-round co-main at UFC 335, a month after Gane and Hokit. Yahoo’s pound-for-pound panel kept Aspinall at No. 9 for October and framed the best-case scenario as extra time letting his eyes heal fully before he comes back for what he considers his.
My take: a refusal list with one name on it is a fun headline, but the number that matters is zero, as in zero fights booked. Aspinall is the No. 1 contender in a division where the champ, the No. 2 and the No. 3 all have dates, and he has an eye that needs to cooperate first. Who he won’t fight is trivia. The bigger question is who he fights when the doctors clear him, and that answer probably comes into focus after Gane and Hokit settle things on Nov. 14.
