Dana White has long made it clear how he feels about fighters declining matchups based on personal relationships and Tom Aspinall is no exception.
Ahead of his heavyweight title defense against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 this Saturday, Aspinall recently said he’d rather vacate his championship than face friend Ante Delija in a future fight. Delija recently made a successful UFC debut with a knockout of perennial top 10 contender Marcin Tybura and should he work his way to title bout, Aspinall has on interest in stifling the dreams of his teammate.
That’s never something White likes to hear.
“You know what I think about that before you even ask me,” White told TNT Fight Sports. “I hate that. Many friends, relatives, name it, have all fought each other before. It doesn’t determine whether you are friends with somebody or you hate somebody. You’re competing against someone to see who the best is, but that’s his decision.
“These guys, you become a world champion, and if he defends the title and does whatever he does, to even think about vacating it because you don’t want to compete against somebody is absolutely insane, but he’s a grown man, that’s up to him.”
Should Aspinall get past Gane, there is no clear-cut challenger waiting for him. Jailton Almeida fights Alexander Volkov on the UFC 321 undercard and an impressive performance could vault one of them to the front of the line. Beyond that, two-time light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has made overtures towards a heavyweight move, but he seemingly prefers matching up with a returning Jon Jones as opposed to Aspinall.
White isn’t sure what to make of Pereira’s suggestion just yet.
“Anything is possible,” White said. “I don’t really like looking down that far talking about the light heavyweight champion moving up but I don’t know, we’ll see how things play out Saturday, obviously, and then the end of this year as far as Pereira goes and stuff like that. We’re only looking at Saturday, that’s it.
“Even Tom saying, ‘I’d vacate’ [if he had to fight Delija], it’s even silly to talk about that when the guy is ranked No. 10.”
Right now, White is only interested in seeing who emerges at the top of the pile after Aspinall and Gane enter the octagon in Abu Dhabi. Aspinall has all the makings of a long-reigning champion, but Gane could steal his thunder and finally claim an undisputed title in his third try.
“Aspinall and Ciryl Gane is a very interesting fight for both guys,” White said. “Aspinall is supposed to be the future of the heavyweight divisions. He’s going to have to get through Ciryl Gane first. And for Gane, there was a point in time when it looked like he might be the future of the heavyweight division, so big fight for both of these guys.”
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