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The UFC can consider one heavyweight fight completely off the table. That division was the main topic of conversation in Abu Dhabi last week, as Tom Aspinall defended his title against Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC 321. Before the bout ended in disaster when Gane poked Aspinall in the eye, leading to a no contest, the champion and his team had caused somewhat of a stir during fight week. As well as his father and coach coming under fire after publicly revealing his desire to see his son leave the UFC for boxing, Aspinall frustrated Dana White with his stance on fighting teammate Ante Delija. “I hate that,” White told TNT Sports. “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 them to see who the best is, but that’s his decision, you know? “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,” he added. Ante Delija shares Tom Aspinall’s sentiment on a future UFC fight Those comments did not stop the top-10 heavyweight in question from sharing the same stance as the current champion. Aspinall got emotional after Delija’s UFC debut in Paris, where the Croatian tore through Marcin Tybura in just over two minutes to announce his arrival inside the Octagon. Their bond is clearly tight, and ahead of Delija’s second fight in the promotion at UFC Vegas 110 this Saturday, ‘Walking Trouble’ co-signed Aspinall’s opinion on the pair meeting inside the cage. “He’s a really, really dear friend of mine,” Delija said at media day. “I do believe with that statement, he showed his character. “I also wouldn’t fight against him for the belt,” he added. Ante Delija defends Tom Aspinall after the disastrous UFC 321 ending Delija also had supportive words for his teammate regarding last Saturday’s UFC 321 main event. Despite Gane being the one who delivered the severe foul, the heavyweight champ has been coming under fire from some of his peers. Most notably, TJ Dillashaw accused Aspinall of quitting, echoing the sentiment shared by some fans. But Delija staunchly defended his training partner against such claims, insisting the Englishman did the right thing. “I think he did a great job with not continuing,” Delija said at media day. “If more fighters do the same thing, I think we can prevent the same thing (from) happening again. “I think more fighters should do the same thing and more fighters should be punished for behaving that way, and I do believe we’ll stop with that whatsoever.”
