Ciryl Gane's coach opens up about Tom Aspinall's "annoying" accusations against Frenchman: "I can understand what Jon Jones is saying"

Coach Fernand Lopez recently sounded off on Tom Aspinall for accusing Ciryl Gane of seemingly avoiding a showdown. Lopez claimed that Aspinall's accusations were misleading and made it clear that Gane wasn't looking to fight someone below him in the rankings at the time.

Aspinall has previously accused Gane of ducking multiple fights against top-ranked contenders, which made 'Bon Gamin' fire back at the Englishman on social media. Last July, Aspinall outlined Gane's alleged history of avoiding fights during an interview with Ariel Helwani. This led to the Frenchman responding to Aspinall via an X post, dismissing the allegations.

In a recent interview with Helwani, Lopez defended Gane again and dismissed Aspinall's "annoying" claims. He said:

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"It's kind of annoying, whining around saying that Ciryl ducked him and this and that. Everyone ducked him, he's walking around like we're a duck. It's kind of annoying... Even in Paris [UFC Paris, September 2023], the guy decided to fly from London by himself... I'm there, and then no one at the UFC asked us if we want Tom to get in the cage. No one. Everything was smooth. Then you have someone cageside, who says to you, 'Well, I want to fight you. Can you call me out?' Why should [Gane] do that? So Ciryl didn't call him out.

He continued:

"Obviously, he's looking forward and he started to think about how to make better on his career, so he was looking forward to trying to fight Jon Jones. Because at that time, I think that Tom was fifth in the rankings, or something like that... I can understand what Jon Jones is saying. That sounds annoying to come back and try to tease people."

Coach Fernand Lopez believes Tom Aspinall will carry all the pressure at UFC 321

In the same interview, coach Fernand Lopez spoke about the pressure on Tom Aspinall at UFC 321 and how the Englishman could face immense "embarrassment" if he lost.

Speaking to Helwani, Lopez shared his two cents on the Aspinall-Gane fight and said:

"Tom Aspinall has more pressure on him than any other fighter has experienced in the last decade. Could you imagine what would happen if Aspinall does not deliver on October 25? That will be beyond an embarrassment. This is a lot of pressure that you don't want to take on your shoulders."

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Edited by Nishant Zende.