Tom Aspinall did not get to become the undisputed heavyweight champion on his own terms. Jon Jones decided to snub him and retire briefly, which saw him stripped of the title, leading to Aspinall’s elevation as the new undisputed champ. Now, the Salford native has a chance to show the world that he’s the real deal against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 and prove to the world that he’s the legit king of the heavyweights.

Ciryl Gane, after missing out on a win in his previous two title fights, is getting another chance to make things right. But just like he faltered against Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou before, UFC legend and 2-time featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski believes that the same can happen to him once again this weekend. That’s because ‘The Great’ is pretty certain that Tom Aspinall is leaving no stone unturned in his training camp.

Tom Aspinall’s camp is perfectly simulating Ciryl Gane’s ground scenarios

Ciryl Gane is a crafty striker, but his ground game has been an issue for him throughout his entire UFC run. This weekend, he could be butting heads against Tom Aspinall, who’s known to KO his opponents within the first two rounds. However, the undisputed champion has a pretty credible ground game, as he started his combat training as a grappler. “When it comes to grappling, Tom Aspinall is going to give him [Gane] just as much problems [as Jones] if not more,” Alexander Volkanovski stated in a now-deleted video on his YouTube channel.

But why is ‘The Great’ so high on Tom Aspinall coming out on top against Ciryl Gane? Well, do you remember how things went down at UFC 285? The Frenchman found himself in a compromising position against Jones on the ground within seconds of the opening bell. That could happen again, but Volkanovski claims Aspinall’s training approach has him trying to put himself in compromising positions, just like the featherweight champ does, to build confidence and get the hang of surviving those situations.

“What I like about Tom Aspinall and his team, he trains with his dad… They go for everything,” Alexander Volkanovski further stated. “I would let people just get me in the later stage submissions then get myself out of it just to get that resilience and be durable and be good at just finding that space. And I remember Tom. We end up tagging in something, and I remember he was doing a lot of that.”

Alexander Volkanovski also recalled the time when he prepared for Yair Rodriguez and even Diego Lopes, who “like their guard.” There is always a chance that a fighter gets caught up in that guard and gets submitted. So, to tackle those issues, ‘Volk’ brought in BJJ expert Craig Jones for his camp and tried to put himself in those positions so that he could learn to navigate his way out of them. Remember how he fought through Brian Ortega’s guillotine hold?

“I’m going to put myself in Craig Jones’s submissions and just try and be better at manipulating his positions,” Volkanovski continued. While saying, “He’s [Aspinall] going to put himself in there. I’m just guaranteeing [that] he’s got guys striking and trying to get them to look the same as Gane,” Alexander Volkanovski implied that he’s pretty sure that Tom Aspinall has someone to mimic his opponent this weekend and will beat Ciryl Gane with relative ease.

Well, Tom Aspinall has been pretty dominant in his UFC run, but that does not mean that he’s underestimating what Ciryl Gane brings to the table. As such, he’s brought in some specialists in his camp, including one of the best kickboxers in the world.

Aspinall brought in Rico Verhoeven for UFC 321

Alexander Volkamovski wasn’t joking when he said Tom Aspinall is going all out for UFC 321. On the UFC 321 Countdown video, the UFC heavyweight champion revealed that the GLORY heavyweight champion, Rico Verhoeven, who’s been the champion for over a dozen years, has been helping him out and sharing his invaluable knowledge in his preparations to fight Ciryl Gane, who’s got a similar style to Verhoeven.

“Rico is the GLORY Kickboxing heavyweight champion. He has been heavyweight champion over 10 years, the best kickboxer in the world,” said Tom Aspinall. “And Ciryl Gane, he’s got a kickboxing-heavy style. Rico came; he’s here to help me. He brings knowledge that nobody else in the world can. It’s the best sparring I can get, really.”

We are just a few days from finding out who the real heavyweight king in the UFC is. As far as it seems at the moment, Tom Aspinall might have the edge over Ciryl Gane, but in a crazy sport like MMA, anything can happen in the blink of an eye. What do you reckon? Drop your comments below.