The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Daniel Cormier TV - Tom Aspinall WARNS Ciryl Gane not to engage, Jon Jones, heavyweight title

Episode Date: October 25, 2025

UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall IS BACK on the Daniel Cormier Check-In series, and the champ has a lot to say about his UFC 321 main event title fight against Ciryl Gane. Aspinall talks about his other opponents in the division, and why Gane was "the only fight" to make for the heavyweight championship. And Tom breaks down the Gane vs. Jon Jones fight, and why he thinks Ciryl came up short. Plus, Cormier and Aspinall discuss his viral comments about fighting Prime DC, a future fight with Jones, and so much more! All lines provided by Hard Rock Bet #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

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In Indiana, if you are someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help. Call 1009 with it. And if you have a gambling problem, call 100 gambler. Guys, I'm here. with the heavyweight champion in the world time aspin all how good does that sound like just the heavyweight champ not interim nothing just heavyweight champion tom aspinall pretty good pretty good it's nice i mean that's what we want to do in it we want to win the i think when you start off in this sport you get the gloves on you envision yourself as being the

champion of the world yeah at least i did yeah i did i can't speak for everybody i know some people just want to try it have a fight or whatever but for me i wanted to be the best when you when you when you won the interim title you can tell how much that meant to you right but Yeah, but I don't know. For me, it wasn't so much the interim title. I mean, obviously that's a big achievement in itself. It was the fact that I wasn't ready for that fight. I was fighting, oh, she's got the coffees.

Yeah. I was fighting, Sir, thank you very much. I was fighting Sergey Pavlovich, who was knocking everybody out at the time. He was. And usually when I'm, I'm like very regimented with my training, with my lifestyle, everything's like geared towards, you know what it's like. Everything for the last 10 weeks plus of my life has been geared towards Saturday night. Whereas with that fight in particular, I was not in shape.

You just knew you had to get him out of there. Yeah, I just had to get him out of there. That was, nothing worked out. And then you beat Curtis Blades and you just wait, right? You've had to wait so long. Like, I know, I don't want to talk about why you're waiting, right? We're past all that. But the time off, like, could you look back on it now and see any positive

and just kind of refreshing yourself, having a clear mind to just truly get ready for the challenge ahead of you now? but most times you don't get time, right? So when you do get it, you got a kind of appreciated, no? I appreciate, I've got a lot better in the year off. Yeah. Because when you're training for a fight, you're training basically to get your body ready for that fight. You're training for one guy,

whereas I was like training just to, I was in the gym every day, twice a day. I was in the gym just improving, getting better, working on things. They had teammates fighting. I was helping them out and stuff. So it was nice to not put, my body through that all the time, but I've improved a lot, I think.

How frequently would you like to fight now, though? Considering Maraub's about to fight for the fourth time. Yeah. But Rob is defending his title for the fourth time this year. That's absolutely crazy. What's the maximum you fought in a year? How many times? Three?

Max. One year I fought Gustafson, Jones, and Rumble Johnson. And I was like, yeah, I need nine months off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think three, three's good. Three's good. I think, yeah, three's perfect. So you're fighting Cyril gone this weekend.

Yeah. Heavyweight champions. Finally. Finally. Hey, bro, you know what was crazy? Chale and I, we're messy, right? So we like to start shit. But we do TV.

That's what we do. But I said, if I'm Tom Aspinall, I'm not fighting him. Because that was a time where you were, like, in the crowd waiting to fight him. And he kind of was like, ah, I'm not really doing that. Did you ever think, like, you know, maybe I should make this dude wait, go fight somebody else? You know, because you're a man now. It's crazy how the shoes on the other foot, right?

But you, right away, say, let's go. I didn't exactly get given a choice. Oh, it was the only option? Well, who else is there to fight? I already beat Volkov in the first round. Yeah. Al-Meda was already matched with Volkov. They didn't want to do Al-Mada, to be honest.

Yeah. So, Cyril Gans is a number one contender. Also, Volko was coming off a lost again. Yeah. Al-Mada just fought Spivak, who's way down in the rankings. Yep, and then Al-Meda got beat by Curtis. Yeah, yeah. So it looks a little bit weird.

So the only guy that they offered me was gone. So obviously, I take it. So you're fighting Cyril, right? Big time fight. I just saw something you said. You think it's weird how people are riding off Cyril gone. Yeah. And for me, that was awesome to see because when I look at the fight, right,

I see a guy that can actually move with you. I see a guy that's been in there with power threats before, Francis and Ganoo, Derek Lewis. So many others, I also see a guy that's been five rounds. because of all those things, when you're breaking down the fight, everything would say it should be competitive. Why don't are people just saying

he can't go with you? These media people are crazy, aren't they? You don't think? People get a narrative and they just run with it. It's crazy. But listen, I think something that I don't get much credit for

is I think a lot of people see my style, they see I move fast, they see I've got power and stuff. They think, oh, he's just a big, strong athletic guy. My fight IQ is really, really high, and I don't think I get a lot of credit for it. So I know if what I'm looking at is good or not good,

and I know that Cyril Gans is good. He's very good. He's really good. And I think the fact that he won his fight against Volkov, but... Did you think he lost that fight? I did think he lost the fight. So many people thought he lost that fight.

Yeah, I did. I'm not a judge, though, so maybe there's some things that judges can see that I don't see, but... Or not just bad. Did you see last weekend? Did you watch any from Vancouver? No. No. They be messing up the decisions constantly.

Did you see what happened with the referee? One dude got hit low in the nuts. No, I didn't see it. Oh, Tom, he should have saw it. Tom, what's the big guy's name? He's one of the best referees in the game. Dun Mergley also. Dan Mergleata.

Bro, Dan Mergleada is watching a fight. A guy gets dropped. He's beating. I don't know who was. He's beating him. Murgliata stops the fight with three seconds. left in the round, the guy celebrates, runs to his corner things to fight over, and Dan goes, we're still fighting.

I thought I heard the whistle. Oh, no way. I swear to God. Bro, and that happened. So you can't really get, if a decision is close, even questionable, when stuff like that still happens inside the octagon, you know? So like, I get it, the frustration, but he's the guy that earns the title fight. So people should not be looking at it.

And also, it's the John Jones thing. I think that vision, right? Biggest moment of his career, they saw him get submitted in that way. Yeah, I mean, it was quick. I think when you lose like that, he kind of sticks around. But listen, man, Cyril's really good.

You know, it's like sometimes you show up and you just don't have a good night. And I think that was one of those nights for him, for whatever reason. Maybe John Jones is the best ever. Maybe he was feeling sick that day. You know, there's some stuff that can go on that we don't know about,

but for whatever reason, that night in particular, he wasn't very good. Does that mean he's not very good overall? No. Cyril Grounds really, really good. And I've prepared for him accordingly. And that was refreshing to hear you say that because people are trying to spin

a completely different narrative. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name,

Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. We were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast,

people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey, Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

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I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Jen Chinchin win. I mean, she went down at three to, two. Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay.

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Do you expect him to be a little bit more engaging being that is going to be probably his last opportunity at a heavyweight title fight, right? He fought for the interim title and you fall for the disputed title twice. This could be his last chance. Or do you expect that same point and kind of point fighting type of fight early to try to drag it into the later round? I think I've got him at his best because he's never, he's got a few things now that he's going to be better than before.

he's been through those big fights he's got them losses no doubt he's learned from them losses he's got the experience he knows what it's like to fight under pressure and this is his last chance man he's not going to get a fourth go like this is his third go

so I'm expecting the best version of him if he's more engaging from a technical standpoint that evens the odds up a lot more on my part so I wouldn't if I was him I wouldn't

I wouldn't force the engagement Because you said if you hit somebody square in their face, they're going to fall. Yeah. You believe in your power like that. Yes. You know, I see a great fight. I think it's going to be a tremendous fight. I was surprised at how easily you went through Curtis Blades.

Like, were you surprised at all? Yeah. Because that, the first fight, right? You guys, you respected him more the first time because you were kind of staying back a little bit. That second time you just went through him. I'm like, what made you just attack him in that way? You know what? It's really weird.

I'm sure you can relate to this because it's probably. happened to you every time I knock somebody out I just can't believe that I've knocked him out I'm like oh you fell over with that like from that you fell over yeah so weird yeah I just I don't know that's what it's not that I believe in my power and I'm like you know stick in my chest that I'd be like oh I'm the strongest puncher ever it's that I have proof of that if I hit somebody like statistics have told me that if I hit somebody they're going to go over so like the last fight with blades uh

palouic is the same spivax the same guys like that like i've hit him and i've been like oh like you're unconscious yeah i can't believe it yeah is this the right time to fight tom aspinall i kind of liken it to this right this is my this is my chart francis and gano could not fight 25 minutes until he went and fought steep am iotius for 25

minutes and he exhausted himself then he was able to fight 25 minutes we don't know what 25 minutes with tom aspinall looks So the unknown should give guys confidence that right now is the time to fight you in that long fight. John Jones, I think he made a huge mistake by not fighting you now because what if you go 25 minutes and you still win but you understand that fatigue? Because it is a different fatigue. Once you do it once though, it'll become like, yes. So it's right now the time to be fighting Tom Aspenol before you get that experience. It's a great outlook, I think.

I like it. That's when people say, would you have all the time? I go, now I would have because I don't know what he would look like later. When you know what he looks like later, no. I know what you're saying. But on the flip side of that, as someone myself who watches a lot of footage, like for example, Cyril Gann, there's rounds and rounds and rounds where you can watch him, see what his patterns are, see what he's good at and not good.

With me, 80% of that plus you can't see. You don't know what I do. No one's got any idea. No, everyone's got this. assumption that I train for two minute fights. Like, that is so far from the truth that it's unbelievable. So there's this notion, again, in the media where people are like, if Tom goes past two minutes, Cyril wins.

Yeah, but that's insane. But that's what people say every time. You could never think that a heavyweight champion is going to get tired and a round. But that's what people think. So if people do think that, that's fantastic for me. So what does round two, three, four and five look like this weekend? do you as a guy that starts fast and that can finish fights

if it starts to turn a little bit to where he's like lasting do you kind of pull back and go okay leave some in the tank because I think that's the difference in fighting 25 minutes I did it nine times yeah it's like you can't fight as hard for as long unless you're Maraubb well he's insane he's insane he's insane right he's like not everybody else can do that

um I never start honestly I promise you now I never, I'm going full speed in my fights. Never. You're not going on. I'm always thinking, my dad has said something to me. Last thing, he says, just move around, just enjoy it, just take your time. And that's what I do every single time.

I'm not going full speed at all. I'm far from it. So every time I'm thinking, you know, I've got to hold some back because we're going to go five rounds. I've got that in my mind all the time. So we'll find out. I don't know. Man, I can't wait. Listen, this is supposed to.

to be the hardest fight of your career. Yep. But if it isn't, holy shit. Are you prepared for what your life will look like after Saturday? If it isn't, because by all accounts, this should be the hard one. But if you wipe this dude out, I mean, they're going to put a rocket ship on your back and send you to the moon. Seriously. I don't know.

I've not really thought that far ahead. Bro, everybody wants a heavyweight. Everybody wants the heavyweight champion to be like Mike Tyson was, and that's the type of air you would start to live in if you go through this fight in that way. Good. Well, let's see. Let's see on Saturday. I don't know.

I never predict what's going to happen after my fight. So we'll find out on Sunday. When Sunday morning rocks around, we'll see. You're going to be making a lot of, if you get through this one clean and impressive, you're going to make a boatload of money. You're going to start loaning me money. Like, I'm trying to start loaning me money at this point. if he continues to do what he does.

You've got about five jobs. You've got about how many title fights? You must have loads of you. Rather doing all right, I ain't going to say too much. Guys, Tom Aspinall defends his UFC heavyweight championship this weekend against Cyrilgan and the main event at USC 321. Make sure you hit the buy button at ESPN pay-per-view because Tom still collecting those checks right now in January.

That stuff changes. But right now, Tom still collecting those checks. Hit that buy button. Watch the baddest man on the planet that he competes to try to become a world. try to defend his world championship on Saturday. Until next time, like, subscribe, and tell your friends about my YouTube channel. I got guys like Tom Aspinall checking in with me. Hey, Tom, also, hey, man, thanks for giving me props about the fight.

Even though you're kind of just kind of polishing me up a little bit. When you go, oh, D.C. would have been a problem if we fought when we were. I told you that years ago. Yeah, I know you did, but still, to say, you're just kind of polishing me up. And I like, every now and again, somebody got to give the big boys some love, you know? Thank you, Tom. Yeah, it's the truth. Yeah, you know.

I think you might have beat me up, but. No, I would have, hey, let me take some. I'd have been shooting from halfway across the octagon. The moment they had said fight. Guys, make sure you watch Tom this week. And until next time, peace. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers.

I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

We just contributed to it. We get to ask people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy. Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel.

Help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff

nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players and the moments set to find Roland Garris. Genschen win. She's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay.

Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.