Tom Aspinall tells Alex Pereira exactly how to beat Ciryl Gane at UFC White House as he confirms absence

Tom Aspinall will not be at UFC White House, but he’s offered some advice for the promotion’s newest heavyweight title challenger.

Two-weight world champion Alex Pereira contests his first fight at heavyweight on the UFC’s historic White House card this weekend against Aspinall’s last opponent, Ciryl Gane.

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Aspinall made his first undisputed heavyweight title defence against Gane last October, but the UFC 321 main event ended in disaster when he was poked in both eyes.

With Aspinall still recovering from surgery on both eyes, the UFC booked Gane to fight Pereira for the division’s interim title, with the winner set for a unification fight against the champion next.

Gane has fought a who’s who of the world’s greatest heavyweights — Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones, to name a few — so the big question is whether Pereira will be able to perform at the heaviest weight of his career.

Having studied Gane’s style meticulously ahead of his own fight with the Frenchman, Aspinall, who confirmed he won’t be in Washington, DC, for the fight after revealing he wasn’t invited, has an idea of how Pereira can do so.

Path to victory

“I think Alex’s way to win is by chopping that leg down a little bit,” Aspinall explained on his YouTube channel.

“The thing is, Ciryl stands in a southpaw stance, but — [Pereira] did this a couple of times in his earlier fights against different guys — he’ll still chop the front leg against a southpaw.

“So if [Gane’s] stood with his right leg forward, he still throws that low calf [kick], and he’ll kick his opponent on the inside of the calf… he can still take that leg out and stop his movement.”

Aspinall continued: “If I were Team Pereira, I would definitely be trying to chop that leg.

“That was our plan later down the fight, we were going to try and chop his legs down to stop his movement a little bit, which I did manage to do before we know what happened.”

Asked about what Pereira can do to defend against potential eye pokes from Gane, Aspinall responded: “I have no idea.

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“Just hope it doesn’t hit the spot as it did on me, I guess.”

Aspinall backing Gane to beat Pereira

Although he believes Pereira has it in him to separate Gane from his consciousness, Aspinall is backing his former opponent to get the job done.

“If I were leaning one way, it would be Ciryl Gane on points,” Aspinall concluded.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Alex knocks him out, though, either. But I would definitely lean more towards Gane on points.”

Pereira vs Gane is one of seven fights on the White House card this weekend.

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The event is headlined by a lightweight title bout between undefeated champion Ilia Topuria and American Justin Gaethje.

Sean O’Malley, Josh Hokit, Derrick Lewis, Michael Chandler, Bo Nickal, Kyle Daukaus and Steve Garcia make up the other fighters representing the US on the night.