Morning Report | Ciryl Gane thinks Jon Jones might be cheering him on at UFC 321: ‘Tom [Aspinall] disrespected him a little bit’

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Ciryl Gane doesn’t have overwhelming support heading into UFC 321 according to the oddsmakers, but there’s a chance a much more notable voice that could be in his corner—metaphorically speaking. This Saturday, Gane gets his third chance to become undisputed UFC heavyweight champion when he fights Tom Aspinall in a headlining bout in Abu Dhabi. The opportunity arose when Jon Jones - who the promotion first recognized as its undisputed champion in 2023 after he defeated Gane for a vacant belt at UFC 285 - announced a retirement this past June, ensuring that a unification bout with then-interim champion Aspinall would not happen. Aspinall had publicly called Jones out for over a year and even when he said he was willing to move on, fan fervor for the matchup remained. If Jones is tuning in this Saturday, Gane thinks there’s a chance he could have the former two-division champion on his side. “Maybe, because I think Tom disrespected him a little bit,” Gane told Full Send MMA. “So maybe he’s going to be on my side. Maybe, but yes, he retired, now it’s our turn, and we will see this Saturday.” Jones shortly ended his retirement when President Donald Trump announced plans to hold a UFC event at the White House to commemorate July 4 Independence Day in 2026 (the date has since tentatively been moved to June), with Jones stating his intention to fight on the historic card. Should that happen, light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has mentioned wanting to meet Jones in a heavyweight bout, seemingly disregarding the current state of the division. With all of that chatter looming over Saturday’s main event and Gane hovering around 3-to-1 underdog odds (according to FanDuel), it’s fair to ask if “Bon Gamin” is affected by any of the talk. “No, for the people who know me, I’m really not focused on the outside, what the people think, the bettors,” Gane said. “I only focus on myself and on my strengths. If you want to do a real statistic, you must understand all of my career, all of his career, the opponent, how he finished, and day after day I can see the opinion of the people changing a little bit because when you think a little bit more, you see, OK, it’s not going to be an easy fight.” Gane still thinks about the Jones loss, which saw him submitted by “Bones” in 2:04. However, rather than be weighed down by the experience, Gane chose to grow from it and he hopes that the lessons learned from that setback finally propel him to the top of the heavyweight ladder. “Every time when you have a new challenge, you have a new experience, I got some big losses,” Gane said. “We’re talking about Jon Jones, I learned a lot from this fight, really. I fixed a lot of things from this fight. I grew up, my mindset is really different since this fight, and I was already detached from it. I got my real world with my family, all that stuff like that. That’s why I don’t have too much pressure. I’m not too much in the social media, and that’s why I don’t do too much trash talk or some stuff like that because for me it’s my job, I love my job, I love sports, I’m a competitor. I’m this kind of guy.” If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @AlexanderKlee or @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let us know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and like us on Facebook.