Undefeated and unproven Aspinall: new Chimaev or new Costa?

GOATtalks said:
lol, at saying that Aspinall is unproven, when he’s beaten half of ranked fighters already. Beating Volkov, Pavlovich, Blaydes, Spivak and Tybura in the fashion that he did is all you need to know. He’s the real deal and he should’ve the undisputed champ with one title defence already. Even if he loses to Gane, he’s already proven he’s elite
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This. You can't hate on a guy for virtually clearing out his division, taking all comers, and defending his INTERIM belt while the "technical" champ fights other guys coming out of (and returning to) retirement. On top of all that, Aspirintylenol also repeatedly called out Jones and was ducked.


p.s. Please God, for the sake of the HW division, let Aspirintylenol win. . . Gane as champ, especially after Jones' one-sided wolloping. . . boof....
 
Aspinall isnt fighting "for the title", he already has it.
 
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Rampage_Jackson said:
Tom trains with ranked HWs who attest to his wrestling and jits. I don't think its that much of an unknown. He can grapple.
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What does who someone trains with mean anything ever? Training partners are notoriously biased to say their partner is good at everything. Find the same guys who talk about his wrestling being good, critique any part of his game.

DDP atleast was proven to have a weak wrestling defense prior, I'll give Aspinall the category of unknown as he's defended a couple takedowns from a 10 day Spivac in his UFC career. Also his amateur fights where he was taken down can be considered irrelevant to Aspinall today with years of training.

Clearly Aspinall trains everything and has had his nose on the grind stone, but I don't understand how it's not possible that potentially Almeida makes Aspinall look like DDP on the ground. We've seen everything from him besides wrestling and cardio. He could have it, but also it isn't certain he does. His background started in BJJ, so I assume he's pretty good with it, but he's not ADCC caliber like Werdum or earlier HWs.
 
Tweak896 said:
What does who someone trains with mean anything ever? Training partners are notoriously biased to say their partner is good at everything. Find the same guys who talk about his wrestling being good, critique any part of his game.

DDP atleast was proven to have a weak wrestling defense prior, I'll give Aspinall the category of unknown as he's defended a couple takedowns from a 10 day Spivac in his UFC career. Also his amateur fights where he was taken down can be considered irrelevant to Aspinall today with years of training.

Clearly Aspinall trains everything and has had his nose on the grind stone, but I don't understand how it's not possible that potentially Almeida makes Aspinall look like DDP on the ground. We've seen everything from him besides wrestling and cardio. He Hcould have it, but also it isn't certain he does. his background started in BJJ, so I assume he's pretty good with it, but he's not ADCC caliber like Werdum or earlier HWs.
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"He has won the British Open in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in all belt classes except black belt"
Sure its not ADCC or, but I agree with you.
Winning competitions at several belt levels should be a sign of legit ground game.
 
Kind of a silly comparison when Tom has already beat half of the top ten before even getting the belt. If he never wins another fight he's already done far more than Costa ever will.
 
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Aspinall has 5 ranked wins at HW Vs Khamzats 2 ranked wins at MW, who's unproven?
 
Tom is legit and as others have said, there's only Gane & Almeida left before he's essentially cleared out the division. Then he could probably beat them all again on a victory lap.

But the Gane fight will be tough, not because of the opponent particularly, but because of the circumstances.

There's going to be a new and intense pressure on Tom as he enters the octagon to fight Cyril. After all the Jones BS and all the talk, he'll suddenly be the big favourite. He'll be expected to show he's the long awaited King of the division, he'll need to back up the aura and reputation that led to Jones ducking him.

I don't know how he'll react to that. I suspect there will be a certain element of caution and he won't be smoking Gane in the first round. Gane is elusive and mobile too, so this fight might go 2 or 3 rounds. And whilst I think Aspinall can and will beat Gane, wherever the fight goes, Cyril is dangerous.

If Aspinall goes in there and starches Gane in the first minute, then I'll be surprised but delighted. However, I would also feel kinda sad because there would be little else for Tom to do unless the UFC signs some more talent. We'd have an ATG cursed to exist in an era of bums.
 
What in the world do you have to do to be considered proven these days?

I think technically he has more top 10 ranked wins at HW than Islam did at LW (I know its not the same thing, chill out)
 
Tweak896 said:
Burns=Pavlovich
Usman=Blaydes
Whittaker=Gane?
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ok, just some context: Chimaev went to a not so dominant decision win against the first two while Tom just demolished his opponents.
Whittaker lost that way because his bad teeth failed him and Tom is still waiting to fight Gane.
 
lsa said:
"He has won the British Open in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in all belt classes except black belt"
Sure its not ADCC or, but I agree with you.
Winning competitions at several belt levels should be a sign of legit ground game.
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I agree he has a legit sub game. However I would say so does Gane. Aspinall's is likely higher, but right now in MMA it seems like anyone with a decent camp can avoid most subs from top position unless they are an extremely high level grappler like Burns/Werdum level. I don't think anyone has that right now at HW. However anyone with legit BJJ can likely land a sub on top, assuming their opponent is below their level or they caught them good prior. I don't doubt Tom has good offensive BJJ from the top, but I also don't think if he's on his back he's getting any decent opponent off his back, including Gane.

Lee Danger said:
ok, just some context: Chimaev went to a not so dominant decision win against the first two while Tom just demolished his opponents.
Whittaker lost that way because his bad teeth failed him and Tom is still waiting to fight Gane.
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I get it, but I was just comparing W's at the real high level opposition. Guess you could add Volkov to Aspinall's list too. Seems like HW is easier to get finishes.
 
TS putting Khabib and Colby in the same category is insane. There’s a lot of dumb shit in that post but that has to be the dumbest.
 
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