UFC 321 Salaries For Tom Aspinall & Ciryl Gane

After more than a year, Tom Aspinall finally got to defend his UFC heavyweight championship at UFC 321 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi last night, the 25th of October.

Aspinall’s fight with Ciryl Gane was the Brit’s first defence of his newly crowned status as undisputed heavyweight champion following the relinquishment and retirement of Jon Jones. For Gane, meanwhile, this was his third chance at the undisputed championship after being denied twice previously by Francis Ngannou and Jones, respectively. The Frenchman had, however, previously held the interim championship.

But it was a night to forget, quite frankly, for both Aspinall and Gane as the fight ended in a no contest in the very first round after an accidental eye poke from the challenger, which left the champion unable to open his eyes.

UFC 321 Summary

The preliminary card featured heavyweight Chris Barnett losing a decision to Hamdy Abdelwahab. The American has built up a cult following online for his antics inside the Octagon, which included his shorts falling down last night, but that loss will now raise question marks over the 39-year-old’s spot in the UFC.

The other notable fight in the prelims was Quillan Salkilld’s vicious head-kick knockout of Nasrat Haqparast in a gruesome scene that left the latter face down and unconscious.

The main card then kicked off with light heavyweight action, as undefeated Azamat Murzakanov took on the Serbian Aleksandar Rakic.

Despite Rakic standing almost six inches taller than the Russian, Murzakanov blew him away, scoring a TKO in the first round. A brutal short right hand had Rakic on the floor, and Murzakanov followed up with a ground strike, which saw the referee call a halt to the action.

Following that, Alexander Volkov took on Jailton Almeida in a heavyweight scrap. Volkov had previously lost his last fight in controversial circumstances against Ciryl Gane, while Almeida was looking to continue building on his two-fight win streak.

Almeida looked to control the fight on the ground, but the judges scored more in favour of Volkov’s damage output as the tall Russian took home a split decision victory.

Highly rated Umar Nurmagomedov then took on Mario Bautista in bantamweight action. The Russian’s sole loss on his record is to current champion, Merab Dvalishvili, and he looks set to run that one back after a dominating showing against Bautista.

Nurmagomedov had his older cousin, Khabib, in his corner last night as he made his case for another shot at the bantamweight championship.

The co-main event featured the UFC’s vacant women’s strawweight championship up for grabs as Mackenzie Dern took on Virna Jandiroba. This was the second meeting between the two after their initial fight on the 12th of December 2020. Dern ran out with a unanimous decision on that occasion, and Jandiroba was looking for revenge.

In what was a tight back-and-forth fight, Dern would prevail again, however, winning the fight on all three judges’ scorecards (48-47 x2 and 49-46).

Tom Aspinall Retains Championship Via No-Contest

The main event would last just under five minutes after Ciryl Gane accidentally poked the eyes of Aspinall, leaving the champion unable to continue.

The fight was warming up nicely with both men exchanging shots and Gane drawing blood from the nose of Aspinall, who looked set to be in for the toughest fight of his career so far.

It was a cruel ending to Aspinall’s first title defence, as he was looking to put on a show for the world after being out of action for over a year. He expressed his disappointment after the fight in the cage with commentator Daniel Cormier.

He said: “Complete bulls***, I’m p***** off.”

Gane was apologetic to the crowd and Aspinall as well after the accidental eye poke, saying: “I’m very sorry about that, for the crowd, for the fans, for everybody. Sorry for Tom Aspinall, sorry for myself.”

The ending sparked massive debate online about whether Aspinall took the easy way out of the fight after being bloodied up by Gane.

UFC President, Dana White, meanwhile, has already confirmed he intends to book a rematch between the two.

UFC 321 Fighter Salaries

Being crowned the baddest man on the planet comes with great financial rewards, as Tom Aspinall will pocket an estimated $3,542,000 for his role at UFC 321. The defending champion will walk away with his title and the biggest payout of his career so far.

Ciryl Gane, meanwhile, will earn just shy of half Aspinall’s earnings, walking away with roughly $1,522,000.

Quillan Salkilld’s viral head-kick knockout saw him take home an extra $50,000 bonus for the Performance of the Night award, which was also won by Valter Walker, who won his fight via a fourth straight heel hook.

UFC action continues next weekend with UFC Fight Night when Steve Garcia takes on David Onama in featherweight action.