THE W.A.D.E. Concept - The PROBLEM With Tom Aspinall vs Ciryl Gane.. - The W.A.D.E. Concept with Wade Plemons

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, folks, we are back on the way concept

(00:02):
presented by The Ring magazine. Today. I wanted to talk
about the UFC three twenty one main event, Tom Aspinall,
Surreal Gone, and I'm particularly excited about this fight because,
unlike the rest of the Internet, I still want to
see how good Tom Aspinall is. Yes, he is the
heavyweight champion. Yes he should have been fighting John Jones.
John Jones ducked. There's no debating that. It was clear

(00:26):
John wanted no part of it, and now that the
White House card is in play, maybe John does. I
don't know, but I'm still not necessarily convinced that Tom
Aspinall will be the greatest heavyweight we've ever seen, or
that he's as good as people are telling me he is,
because i want to see more of what he brings
in a fight that doesn't just go one round. And
I'm not saying that's his fault. You fight the people

(00:47):
that are in front of you, and in about ten
days from now, that'll be Surreal Gon, who presents an
interesting matchup that may have Tom Aspinall in some danger.
What do I mean the breakdown? Let's go, But before
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this video. And now let's get back into the breakdown.

(02:38):
All right, So everywhere you turn on the internet right now,
everyone is I don't want to say it is glazing
to a degree, but everyone is on the Tom Aspinall
hype train. And I understand why because Tom Aspinall, since
he's gotten to the UFC has pretty much made light
work of every fighter he's ever stood in front of.
Outside of the weird kind of knee injury Tko lost
to Curtis Blades, which he then came back and beat

(03:01):
Curtis Blades very dominantly in their second fight. So it's hard.
It's hard to look at Tom Aspinall's strength of schedule
here for using college football terms, and believe there's anybody
on there that would have been threatening to Tom. So yeah,
I mean, it is a bit of a difficult thing
to look at anybody on Tom's record as we as
we take a look here and act like any of

(03:21):
it was really a challenge to Tom Aspinall. Maybe maybe
you know, Saragai would have been. Papovich was a big
puncher and potentially could have given Tom some problems, but
stood right in the pocket with him and got dropped.
I mean, yeah, I mean, I just don't see any
I mean, the heavyweight division is rough right now, it
is awful, and outside of two or three big names

(03:42):
that you could mention right now in that division eight
A paplovicha Curtis Blades, Alexander Volkov, a Cerrial Gun of
Tom Aspinal, there really isn't anyone that's there that either
gets people excited or presents an opportunity for Tom Aspinall
to potentially have a tough matchup now with Aull. That
being said, this strength of schedule doesn't really tell me

(04:03):
a lot about Tom Aspinall and what his capabilities are
when he goes to that next level. Do I think
serel Gon is that next level? No? I don't. I
think this Surreal Gon is this level the level of
guys that he's already beaten, which is why I am
picking Tom Aspenall to win this fight. I know Wade
curses in effect, it is what it is, but I
do see some dangerous elements to this fight and I'm

(04:23):
very interested to see what happens when Tom fights probably
the best striker he's ever seen, in Sereal Gone. But
the problem is this isn't kickboxing, it's not boxing, it's MMA.
So Tom has more well rounded skills than Cereal Gone.
And again, I think you'll see that in about ten days.
But let's break the fight down and kind of go
step by step as to why this will probably be

(04:44):
the toughest fight that Tom has had, or maybe it
won't be. Maybe Tom will do what he does and
all these different fights and walk out in the first
round and knock them motherfucker dead. His entire fight history
is incredible. It's first round, second round and nothing else.
I mean predominantly of the how many fights he had
eighteen fights, one, two, three? Is it just three? So
fifteen of his eighteen fights have finished in the first round,

(05:06):
and of the fifteen that have finished, he's finished fourteen
of them. And again the Curtis blades weird fluky knee
injury thing that you can't really hold that against him.
But this is a strength and potentially a weakness of
tom Asminal. I know you guys have heard it from
every MMA channel on the internet over the last couple
of months that Tom Aspinal still has yet to prove
what he can do over five rounds. And it's not

(05:27):
his fault. If you go out and murk a motherfucker
in three minutes, that's what happens. But it is going
to be interesting to see because Serril gon has son
no pun intended five rounds a couple of different times.
And when you look at Serril Gohan's record, yes, it's
a bit of an up and down when it comes
to how he gets fights done. But the only two
actual losses, even though you can argue that Alexander Volkov

(05:49):
beat him. The only two losses that he has are
to John Jones and Francis Andnganu, two former champions. Right,
so he's this is his technically his third actual tie opportunity,
even though he won the interim title off Derek Lewis.
But look at the different varieties in which cyril Gon
can fight and win. Right. He winsko early in his career,

(06:12):
obviously not so much as he's gotten into his later part.
Not known as a massive power striker, but a guy
that can overwhelm you. But five rounds, five rounds, five rounds.
He's gone the distance three times and gone past the
second round one, two, three, four, five, eight times. So
he understands what it means to go laid into fights
and find victory. But these numbers, these names, this win

(06:34):
loss doesn't tell the whole story of this fight. We
have cerrill Gon, who is predominantly a I wouldn't say kickboxer,
but a striker on the feet, a guy that can
use his elbow's, knees, feet, hands, the art of the
eight limbs. Cerrill Gon is very good. He stands bladed
and in both stances he can hit you again with
his kicks upstairs as well, and in this fight he
will present a reach advantage on Tom Aspinall, who is

(06:57):
I think the same height as Cerrill Gone. I think
they're both round six to four. But tom Aspinall's reaches
seventy eight inches Cerrell eighty one. So if you are
looking at ways that Cyril Gon can present problems for
Tom aspell number one, I think everything has to do
with his takedown defense or his grappling defense versus Tom
Aspinall's grappling offense. Now, Tom not really known as a

(07:19):
big time offensive wrestler, but will do it in spurts.
The beautiful takedowns he had of Alexander Volkov and the
submissions there. I do think that he is better known
for his black belt and Brazilian jiu JITs who have
been grappling for forever. But it's the offensive grappling that
I want to see how legit it is versus someone
that has now seen that Tom is dangerous with his grappling, right,

(07:40):
I want to see what Cyril Gan, who has been
in there with John Jones and got completely obliterated, who
was out grappled by Francis, And again you see a
common theme here. The guys that outgrapple serril Gon usually
beat him. That doesn't sound good for serril Gon when
he's fighting a guy like Tom Aspinall, who is way
more well rounded. And I think, especially in this fight,
serril Gon might be the better and probably is the
better striker out of the two of them. He probably

(08:02):
is the better striker with all eight contact points. Then
Tom Aspinall. Does that mean that he was going to
win this fight by a knockout? No, And in fact
I would if somebody was gonna get knocked out, I'd
favor Tom Aspinall and knocks cereal gone out because one
Tom goes for it, will stand there in the pocket
with you, sometimes even trade with his chin up, which
is dangerous. We'll get back to that. But he commits
to his punches and he has real knockout power, one

(08:24):
punch knockout power, whereas Cyril God does tend to have
to overwhelm you. And I know it's heavyweight and anybody
can get knocked out. I'm just showing you the differences.
So if Syrilla is going to do this, and if
Tom is going to be in legitimate danger, it will
be because Cyril has either established a distance that Tom
can't shoot from with his kicks, eating up the legs,
the push kicks, the teeps. There's a lot of techniques

(08:45):
that Surreal throws that do keep the distance and keep
him in the outside range to where he can circle
the cage. And if you notice in a lot of
his fights, including the Francis and Gannhu fight, where yes,
Francis had some knee issues and wasn't necessarily as mobile
as he needed to be. That's all Surreal was poke
at him from the outside and was winning that fight
until Francis and gan who decided to grapple, and it
wasn't necessarily a super damaging level of grappling. It was

(09:09):
just control. He was able to control Cerril god, and
it wasn't really hard for him to do it. And
that's another big problem if you're Cyrial, if you get
pushed up against the fence, and Cyril loves to fight
off his back foot. He loves to kind of invite
the pressure and then circle around it and tag you
from the outside and then blitz you at the combinations
and switch the stands and there's just a lot of
things he likes to do off your forward movement and

(09:29):
again put him in really bad spots, especially with a
guy like Tom who was looking to get to boxing range,
and if he isn't in boxing range or if he's
not having success where he's at, he will potentially initiate
that grappling then come upstairs with the striking and it's
a whole mess. So Cyril has to keep his distance,
I think, at least early, and see if he can
start to win this fight on a point scale system,

(09:50):
by using his reach, by using his kicks, by being
more calculated and technical with his striking versus being super aggressive,
because we've seen how that works out for anybody wants
to be super aggressive with Tom Aspinall, they get dealt
a swift hand of Nike will and the fight's over
in you know, thirty seconds. So that can't happen, and
that's not who surreal God is. So I think that

(10:11):
is at least how you want to start the fight.
On the other side, Tom Aspinall, I'll be interested to
see how he approaches this fight because he has made
a statement running through this heavyweight division, and I'll be
honest heavyweight in the UFC is probably the worst technical
division in the sport. It has no names than anyone recognizes.
It doesn't have a ton of fighters with a massive

(10:32):
skill set and an ability to hang with a fighter
as well rounded as Tom Aspinall and is why you've
seen virtually nobody ascend through the ranks of this new
era of heavyweight. What's the name Johnson Almeida. We'll see
what he does, but there's not a ton of big
name heavyweights and there's not a ton of guys that
look like they can challenge Tom Aspinall right. Now, if
Tom goes in there and just demolishes this a real god,

(10:54):
he will rain over this heavyweight division for a very
long time unless John Jones comes back. And I know
people aren't given John chance there, but I think John
still possesses the fight iq skill, maybe not the speed
and youthfulness that he had, but it could be an
interesting fight regardless. If Tom takes this fight and doesn't
get over zealous with the let me walk in there
and knock this guy out in one round and dip,
but fights his fight, stays aggressive and is patient, this

(11:17):
could be an all time performance for Tom Aspenal. I
don't doubt that, but there is something about fighting a
striker as dangerous and as varied and has more variety
like a Cereal Gond does that maybe you do underestimate
a bit of his grappling defense and all I can
take him down. Whatever, So let's start with the hands
and get caught with something early. I don't know if
you're Tom Aspenall. I think either being in close proximity

(11:40):
to Currell Gon being inside that that kick range, punch
and clinch range is perfect for Tom, or being completely out.
Either one of those things is good for Tom aspinall,
because if you're in the mid range where he can
kick you and you can't kick him, or he can
touch you and you can't touch him, and it becomes
a point fight. And in a point fight with a
point fighter like Cereal Gond, you're going to lose that

(12:01):
at least you're going to lose rounds because of that.
And I want to see what happens if Tom is
having to use more of his grappling and isn't as
successful with it right off the bat. Right what we've
seen right now is Tom Asman I'll be massively successful
with his grappling and striking and pretty much everything he
wants to do right now at heavyweight. This is like
a you know, watching Mike Tyson just run through the

(12:22):
heavyweight division in his early twenties and knocking motherfucker's dead
and just wondering, okay, does this guy have any weakness?
And you weren't able to see it because the fights
were lasting forty seconds, twenty seconds, fifteen, you know, and
you didn't get to know if what's his gas tank?
Look like? What happens when he does fight someone that
is able to move their head or can get inside
and work into the body and then to touch him

(12:43):
up upstairs, and they've got a nasty hook as well,
and Tyson isn't able to get off center line or
his rhythms interrupted. All those things came to fruition later
in Tyson's career when people weren't scared of him or whatever.
There's a sense of, okay, what does Tom do if
he doesn't knock a guy out in the first round
or he doesn't take him down and some minim right away.
That's like the worst way to analyze a fight. What
happens if he isn't a good fighter that's not realistic,

(13:05):
but you do have to ask those questions because can
you keep that same intensity later into the fight, And
it is a lot about Tom's gas tank. If things
don't work out early or if things become predictable, then
what do you have? Do you have another layer past that?
And again I think Tom is more well rounded than Curreal,
But even if you are more well rounded, you still
have to be able to get to the positions where

(13:26):
you're better. If Cyril is just working takedown defense like
I'm fucking mad man, and is able to hold Tom
just at bay for a couple of rounds, then Cardio
does become a factor for a What I look at
when I see Tom aspinall I know Cyrill is cut
up and he is fast twitch I think as well,
and he slows down his fights goes on a little
bit as well. But when I look at Tom Aspital,

(13:47):
everything he does, it looks like is fast twitch, very explosive,
a lot of movement. He's very quick, He's very fast.
Everything you'll hear leading into fight week next week about
Tom aspinall is agility, explosivity, power. That's what you're gonna hear.
And that's true. But when it comes down to what happens.
If that goes, that's where people get into the wild

(14:08):
wild West. I don't know what happened if Tom suddenly
is in round three, maybe banked a couple of rounds,
but is starting to feel the effects of fatigue, and
that's really the only way I see Tom losing this
fight is if he does gas himself out, or if
he takes stupid risks and decides he wants to kickbox
with Cyril God, which I don't see happening. I think

(14:28):
Tom is a smart enough, well rounded him a fighter
to not put himself at a disadvantage round after round
or to was wad early for lack of a better term,
But that is where the danger lies. And let me
be clear, Serrel God can win this fight. I know
he's like a plus two seventy underdog, but he has
the ability striking on the feet, and even in the
Francis and Gan who fight, at least at the early

(14:49):
part of the fight, Dril God did a decent enough
job of keeping himself When he put his back on
the cage, he was able to get out. He was
able to fight through, grab under hooks, pivot out and
reset and then later in the fight, Francis eventually found
his grappling ability and ended up dumping torell Gun on
his head. But it also took Francis an unsuccessful five
round fight versus a younger Stepe Miochic and then beating

(15:12):
steep A to understand that experience level. If you guys,
remember when Francis had to go five rounds for the
first time after he had knocked everybody out in the division.
And again I'm not saying Francis is Tom aspinall completely
different fighters, But after he was knocking motherfucker's dead, sent
alistair Ovarem's head to the moon, and he had to
go five rounds with steep A, you saw the gas
tank deplete like this, And that was without grappling. That

(15:33):
was just with striking. That was just with explosive, high level,
massive movements. Now Tom is a bit more efficient with
his striking, and again I am assuming he is more
prepared to be more well rounded than Francis ever could
have at that point or ever thought of. Tom's been
doing this a little bit longer. But when I talk
about the danger of this fight for Tom aspinall, it's
a couple of things. Number one, Tom is pretty much

(15:54):
the last hope right now of heavyweight to create a
new star or a while. I mean, maybe I'm wrong,
maybe there's other heavyweights coming through and they're going to
be the next big thing, But as of right now,
Tom Aspinall is the biggest thing UFC has seen at
heavyweight since Francis and Gano and since John Jones. Right John,
since he's retired and has not really been looked at
the same way by the MMA community, he doesn't seem

(16:15):
to have the same cachet right now as a Tom Aspinall,
at least for the hardcore fan base. I still think
is a casual viewer. Tom Aspinall is nowhere near John
Jones's name, legacy, any of that. But losing this would
be I mean, it wouldn't be catastrophic for Tom Aspinall,
but it would set back a lot of the good
work he's done at heavyweight to gain this this massive
fan base. So I think there is a lot of

(16:37):
pressure there. And let's not forget again. Z real Ghan
has essentially four or this will be his fourth with
one interim title fight, right this will be his fourth
title fight, which gives you a lot more experience for
Tom however, you want to look at some of these,
you know fights, He's had two essentially title fights, and
he's done well in both of those, But this one
feels like a lot more pressure. This one feels like

(16:57):
there are things that Tom Aspmenal is going to have
to deal with this time that he hasn't in opportunities past,
not just outstriking Curtis Blades, who on the feet doesn't
really have it. Even then, Curtis Blades caught him with
something right before he was caught, SURGEI catching Tom Aspenall
with something right before he was caught, but both guys
not having the technical ability of a surreal God to

(17:17):
stand and actually see what's what on the feet. Now again,
I'm not saying that's what happens, but this is a
dangerous fight or many reasons outside of the cage and
inside it. For Tom Aspinall's aura of invincibility, which right
now the entire MMA community thinks he's going to walk
through surreal God in one round. And if he does that,
then fucking yeah, start the parade, hit the fireworks. This

(17:39):
guy is on a trajectory upward that we haven't seen
in a long time at heveryway, which you also have
to have someone to put him in there with, and
we'll get to that when we get to it. Hopefully
that's John Jones. Maybe it's Alex Pereira. I don't know,
but I'm telling you guys, this is a dangerous fight.
I would say it's a dangerous fight based on what
happens in the first round. If Tom is not as
successful as he normally used to in that first into
mid second round, then this becomes a very dangerous fight.

(18:02):
Hit the panic button moment. If we get into round
three and it's a one to one fight, er, it's
not going Tom's way. But conversely, we haven't seen Tom
aspen All quit at least not in the UFC. We
haven't seen him in really any trouble and we've seen
on the other side, so real gon when things get
a little tough, the grit the grind, I wonder if
it's there, I'd hope. So this is his third title opportunity,

(18:23):
but there is something to be said for a guy
that's never tasted defeat really in the UFC. I know
he's had some losses outside of the UFC. Got ankle
hooked or he'll hooked by somebody before he got there,
and I don't know what happened in his other I
guess he had illegal elbows to a guy that he
got dequed four. So Tom hasn't had real defeat in
this level of competition, and with this amount of exposure.

(18:44):
I think that's gonna serve him well. The confidence level
walking in there never having been defeated, with that belt
around his waist and on his shoulder versus s areal
God who already knows what it's like to lose and
lose in terrible fashion. That can be a motivator, or
that could be something you become comfortable with. Anyway, I
do think there's danger in this fight for Tom Aspinall,
not because he's overlooking, not because he should be, but
because cyril Gon is a bit of a wild card,

(19:06):
especially on the feet. And if Tom Aspinall is not
successful early, what does Plan B look like? What happens
when we need I know, he said he's preparing for
five rounds, and that's great. I think Tom should prepare
for five rounds. I don't think then any fighter should
be preparing to walk in there and knock a guy
out and dip and if that doesn't happen, what do
we do? But it is a real thing when you
get in there. No matter how much you prepared for five,

(19:26):
how much did you anticipate not being successful in one
or two. If that's the case and you can't find
your range striking, and because you can't find your range striking,
you can't find your takedowns, or you can't find your grappling,
then what happened? These are all things that we need
to consider. I'm talking about this fight now. With all
that being said, I've thrown at you a couple of
different scenarios. One being Tom Aspina walks in there, knocks

(19:47):
out cyrill Gon in the first one or two rounds.
Two being Cyrell Gon handles himself very well on the feet,
frustrates tom aspinall, Tom over extends, gets hit with something
Curreal potentially follows up t Ko cerrill Gon or Sorel
controls the fight from the outside using his kicks, his teeps.
Tom can't get rhythm, starts to gas, and Currell wins

(20:07):
a decision because Tom just can't put it together late,
Or we see something we've never seen before, which is
tom aspinall thriving into the later rounds. If that happens,
I would be more I mean, I'll be impressed with
whatever happened. But if Tom were a final way to
be fresh in the later rounds and dominating this five
fifty forty four fifty forty five type stuff, I would
I would probably be not more impressed, because a knockout

(20:28):
is still a knockout, but I'd be very impressed with
that performance as well. And having said it all, I
think this, Like I said, I keep going back to it.
I think cyril Gon being slept on the way he
is is absolutely insane. I think he's got a very
good chance of at least pushing Tom to a place
he's never been. But I still, at least right now,
I still have to think that Tom Aspinall is going
to get this fight done. I just don't see the

(20:49):
places that Cyril Gon is better being good enough for
him to stop what's in front of him. Right just
being a good striker, in my opinion, is not enough
to stop Tom Aspinall from beating him, because again, he
is so varied in his offense. He doesn't necessarily get
hit a ton. He's lost in the UFC, but not
really he got hurt versus Curtis Blades, both men have
their chin exposed leaning back when they strike sometimes, so

(21:11):
that's a toss up. But if this fight is to
ever change from feet to ground, it will be because
Tom got a hold of Cerel Gone. And let's not
forget it wasn't just John Jones that outgrappled Zeril Gon.
It wasn't even just frances and Ghanu that did. But
Alexander Volkov slung him around as well. And again we
could argue that Bolkov should have won that fight. And
I just think when it comes to the well rounded
nature of MMA, Tom is better. He is and if

(21:34):
he's able to prove that in this fight, and again,
the sky is the limit for Tom when it comes
to a potential matchup at the White House with I
would hope John Jones or alex Prera either one. But
if you're overlooking as a fan, not Tom. But if
you're overlooking Cerril Gon, you're making a mistake. He will
at least be ready. Cardio why striking wise, have no
idea how he's gonna deal with Tom's takedowns. I don't

(21:56):
know how Tom is gonna deal with Cerel's maybe improved
takedown defense. But I guess said every fight's a dangerous one,
but this one particularly more in my opinion, for Tom
Aspinall because Serell Gon is a better striker than everyone
Tom has ever fallen at heavyweight. One kick, one punch,
one elbow, one knee can change the entire fight. And
I don't know if I've seen Tom Aspinall under more
pressure than he will be on Saturday, October twenty fifth,

(22:17):
And that's a big, big deal. Yeah, there was pressure
for Curtis Blaze, Yes there was pressure for Sergey Papovich,
but this one's different. Everyone thinks Tom Asminal is gonna
win this fight. Everyone is already looking toward the White
House card. Everyone's already talking about Tom Asminall, Alex Prera
or Tom Aspinall John Jones at the White House. There's
all these plans lined up, and here's Cyrill. God, who's
no one is really thinking about, no one's talking about,

(22:39):
and no one gives a chance to win. I would
say this is the least pressure he's been under, maybe
even less pressure than the John Jones fight, because Jones
was looked at as you know, potentially a little older
and slower coming up to heavyweight. This is a freaking
Cadillac of heavyweights. People are telling me about tom Asminall
so syrel Gon under almost no pressure, can he get
it done? Like I said, I think it it's dangerous,

(23:00):
but ultimately no, I think Tom Aspinall is going to
do this, and when he does, he will get all
due credit from me and I hope the rest of
people for beating a really good fighter in my opinion,
in surreal Gon, that's what I think. You guys let
me know in the comments below. Does Tom Aspinall slip
on the banana peel here? Does surreal Gon shock everyone?
What happens on October twenty fifth, UFC three twenty one

(23:22):
main event tom aspen All Surreal Gon don't have those answers.
More videos coming up on this obviously, so I guess
we'll find out

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THE W.A.D.E. Concept - The PROBLEM With Tom Aspinall vs Ciryl Gane..

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The Joe Rogan Experience

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}THE W.A.D.E. Concept - The PROBLEM With Tom Aspinall vs Ciryl Gane..