Media Aspinall's defense is porous and little more than just backing up.

[Pancake Sprawl]

Jones basically pulled a GSP. Went up and fought a favorable champion with zero intention of fighting the more difficult matchups in the division. Only difference is at least Jones defended the belt which optically looked worse but is actually a bigger accomplishment. It's just that Jones is such an unlikeable dickhead who couldn't articulate his resistance to fighting Aspinall properly.

GSP gets zero flak for coming out of retirement to fight Bisping when everybody knew there was ZERO chance he was going to fight Rockhold, Weidman, Jacare, or Romero.

GSP didn't stall the division for literal years

 

[mkess101]

He is heavily invested in believing that Aspinall isn't very good

It was hard to tell with the incessant threads spamming the forum using comically bad examples to back up his view.

 

[Kevster]

Gane was obviously dealing with an injury and still won. You may as well say Blaydes and Aspinall are 1-1 then if you don't take any other factors into account.

Gane 50-45'd Volkov the first time they fought, for a reason....and Gane was the much greener fighter of the two back then so if anything it further proves the injury was limiting Gane considerably.

Blaydes and Aspinall are 1-1, guys fight injured sometimes, shit happens, he still got a gift.

 

[mkess101]

Can't fight forever, if he didn't have the hunger anymore then 15 years at the top is enough that he doesn't owe anything. Champ since 23, wins a second belt at HW, retired undefeated at 38, sounds all good to me.

And conveniently now that Aspinall has the belt and is fighting someone else the "hunger" magically reappeared for Jones real quick.

 

[Orochimaru 大蛇丸]

I think he got a declining Blaydes and Pavlovich has proven to be a bit overrated. I don't understand why he's such an overwhelming favorite against Gane. People seem to have forgotten about Gane's fight against Spivac after Ngannou and Jones. Spivac is a really good grappler and was even getting the better of Jailton Almeida until he wilted like always does.

People just hate Jon Jones so much that they can't forgive Gane for getting smoked and they want to discredit Jones so bad that they have to pretend Gane is a white belt and completely clueless when it comes to grappling.

Apparently Jon disagrees with your assessment of Tom lmao

 

[Pierce 34]

Yea he relies on being quick as a MW

 

[AMAZINGUFC]

Literally an obese powerlifting novice striker is able to catch him repeatedly with overhands because Tom is so incredibly predictable with his defense, only knowing how to back up. It reminds me of MMA strikers from decades ago when the sport was more primitive and it was more common to rely on simply backing up like this. His offense is actually his best defense....

He has gotten away with it so far because he is able to take out his opponents early with his admittedly outlier finishing ability, but it will be interesting to see how he deals with an actual skilled striker like Gane that isn't stuck in the mud. I just hope Gane doesn't get caught with something or taken down early so we can see some prolonged striking exchanges.

I wonder if a skilled striker like Gane will be able to figure out an answer to Tom's elite and highly advanced "backing up" erudite martial arts defensive technique.

True!
As long as the fight is standing, Gane will be superior.
A power puncher like Lewis can take advantage of that.

Tom only wasn't knocked out by Pavlo because he has a good chin.

His greatest strength is his speed, but his striking does have flaws.

 

[Alpha_T83]

I agree that Tom Aspinall is "hittable" but his offense is lightning fast.

He's going to outland opponents with his speed. So as long as he can "take a punch", he's likely to win most fights.

 

[Versez]

If Ciryl can defend the takedowns i really can think he can win this fight.

 

[MMAMidwit]

Apparently Jon disagrees with your assessment of Tom lmao

Not necessarily. You think Jones thinks Aspinall should be an overwhelming favorite againt Gane?

 

[AndrewGolota48]

Gane's defense is not that great either. you're acting like he's Prime Anderson Silva lmao

That's the only time he got hurt in his career and he came right back and beat the stuffing out of Tai and got the finish. The whole reason Tuivasa is even UFC level is that he has exceptionally good power and chin, and he landed his lucky shot yet Gane still came back and cracked his chin.

Lennox Lewis is arguably the GOAT HW boxer and got finished by Rahman and McCall.

But yes honestly this is MMA and I am a little shook by Tom's finishing ability because it's very hard in MMA to not get hit. Gane managed to do it against Ngannou however.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

True!
As long as the fight is standing, Gane will be superior.
A power puncher like Lewis can take advantage of that.

Tom only wasn't knocked out by Pavlo because he has a good chin.

His greatest strength is his speed, but his striking does have flaws.

His chin does seem solid so far but that Pavlovich punch is so fucking overrated that it makes me sick. Pav overwhelms people with his striking, he never one punch KOs anyone, he's not Ngannou. He just hit his last opponent with a way harder wound up shot than the one that hit Aspinall and his opponent ate it fine.

 

[markg171]

GSP didn't stall the division for literal years

I feel like I’m in bizarro world. The MW division very much was in flux for a long time while Bisping and GSP only wanted to fight each other.

It’s also worse as GSP’s contract literally mandated that if he won he needed to unify with Whittaker. This wasn’t a case of he SHOULD unify like Jones/Aspinall. GSP HAD agreed to fight Whittaker and then backed out of it despite his contract. That’s far worse, and shouldn’t get extra points just because he immediately broke a signed contract compared to Jon who never signed anything.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

That's the only time he got hurt in his career and he came right back and beat the stuffing out of Tai and got the finish. The whole reason Tuivasa is even UFC level is that he has exceptionally good power and chin, and he landed his lucky shot yet Gane still came back and cracked his chin.

Lennox Lewis is arguably the GOAT HW boxer and got finished by Rahman and McCall.

But yes honestly this is MMA and I am a little shook by Tom's finishing ability because it's very hard in MMA to not get hit. Gane managed to do it against Ngannou however.

yeah, the only time he's been hurt, against possibly the worst HW that's ever been in the top 10

 

[AndrewGolota48]

yeah, the only time he's been hurt, against possibly the worst HW that's ever been in the top 10

Ok and Ilia got hurt a lot worse vs an unranked opponent, and Islam knocked out.

 

[mkess101]

Come to think of it, I don't actually recall Aspinal moving straight back. I do recall him moving side to side all the time though and showing great footwork.

No (and keep in mind it's pretty established that I think dorks like TS and Markg that trash Aspinall all the time are pathetic losers that understand little about this sport)...Tom does actually back straight up at times when he gets an opponent who blitzes him. He did it vs Arlovski for sure. Also leaned straight backwards with no lateral movement vs Pavlovich. The reason he gets away with is is that (relative to other HW's) he's just way more agile and quick. Anderson Silva used to do it at times. Roy Jones Jr did it in boxing.

It's not ideal but his god given abilities let him do it and sometimes use it to bait guys into chasing where he counters them with fast shots that they don't see coming.

 

[mkess101]

His chin does seem solid so far but that Pavlovich punch is so fucking overrated that it makes me sick. Pav overwhelms people with his striking, he never one punch KOs anyone, he's not Ngannou. He just hit his last opponent with a way harder wound up shot than the one that hit Aspinall and his opponent ate it fine.

The difference is that the shot Pav hit Aspinall with was way more flush than anything he hit Salsa Boy with. (Cortez seems to have a good chin too). And it's not that the punch that Pavlovich landed on Aspinall should have one shot KO'd him, nobody is saying that. But those are EXACTLY the type of punches that Pav lands that generally START the sequence that ends fights. He stuns guys with shots like that and then swarms. Aspinall wasnt fazed even a little. Just ate it and threw back.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

The difference is that the shot Pav hit Aspinall with was way more flush than anything he hit Salsa Boy with. (Cortez seems to have a good chin too). And it's not that the punch that Pavlovich landed on Aspinall should have one shot KO'd him, nobody is saying that. But those are EXACTLY the type of punches that Pav lands that generally START the sequence that ends fights. He stuns guys with shots like that and then swarms. Aspinall wasnt fazed even a little. Just ate it and threw back.

It wasn't a shot like this. Yeah it showed Aspinall definitely doesn't have a glass chin or anything, which I acknowledged. He took a couple of flush power shots from Arlovski very well too. It may be different when Gane puts 25 of those on him, but we'll see.

 

[mkess101]

It wasn't a shot like this. Yeah it showed Aspinall definitely doesn't have a glass chin or anything, which I acknowledged. He took a couple of flush power shots from Arlovski very well too. It may be different when Gane puts 25 of those on him, but we'll see.

See, the one you're showing Pav THREW harder, but Cortez was rolling with it. The one he landed on Tom was in the pocket and Tom took it more solidly on the chin.

 

[snugglecakes]

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