Tom Aspinall’s training partner Phil De Fries has opened up on how Ciryl Gane’s coach tried to recruit him last year, as Gane prepared to fight the Briton.
In October, Gane challenged Aspinall for the UFC heavyweight title in Abu Dhabi, where the fight ended prematurely after Gane landed numerous eye pokes.
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Following that no-contest, Aspinall had to undergo double eye surgery and has only recently returned to training, while Gane will face Alex Pereira for the interim heavyweight belt at the White House in June.
Ciryl Gane is a former interim UFC heavyweight champion (Getty)
A rematch between Gane and Aspinall remains an intriguing prospect, although the Frenchman’s team are unlikely to approach De Fries for help again.
“Ciryl Gane’s coach messaged me and said: ‘Can you help me get ready for Tom?’” De Fries, the KSW heavyweight champion, told TalkSport. “I was like: ‘I train with Tom every day, mate!’
“When Tom’s fighting, I always want to wrestle him. If you’re fighting a high-pedigree striker, you want to mix your sparring up with them kind of guys.
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“I told him I train with Team Aspinall all the time. He went: ‘Oh, s***.’ We had a little joke, and the coach seemed like a nice fella.
“I get lots of messages, but they’d have to pay me a lot of money to come and do it, because I don’t like leaving home. If I don’t know you, I want nothing to do with it now. I’m quite a sensible character now, not like when I was younger.”
In preparing for Pereira – a former middleweight and two-time light-heavyweight champion – Gane has been training with Artem Vakhitov.
Vakhitov beat Pereira in Glory kickboxing before the latter joined the UFC, outpointing the Brazilian to avenge his own decision loss to Pereira.
Tom Aspinall was left badly injured by Gane’s eye pokes (AFP)
If Pereira can overcome Gane, he will become the first three-weight champion in UFC history, albeit with an interim title in the third division.
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Meanwhile, Gane would become a two-time UFC interim heavyweight champion by beating Pereira.
The Frenchman, 36, previously held the interim title in 2021 but failed to unify the belts against his former training partner Francis Ngannou in 2022. Gane also lost an undisputed-title fight in 2023, when he was quickly submitted by Jon Jones.
