Tom Aspinall believes it's '50/50' between him and Francis Ngannou: 'Francis is a scary man'

Tom Aspinall has great respect for Francis Ngannou.

This Saturday, Ngannou makes his long-awaited return to MMA when he takes on Renan Ferreira in the main event of PFL: Battle of the Giants. It will be Ngannou's first MMA fight since 2022, when he successfully defended the UFC heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane in his last fight with the promotion. Since then, Aspinall has made quite an impact in the UFC's heavyweight division, winning the interim heavyweight belt in July and then defending his interim title.

Currently, Aspinall is hoping to finally have a title unification fight with UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones after Jones defended his belt against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 in November, but with Ngannou's return to the sport, fans are now on board with it too interested in how a hypothetical fight between the two will take place he and Aspinall could check. And when Aspinall recently answered that question on his YouTube channel, he thinks it's close.

“This is a good fight! “It’s a great fight,” Aspinall said. “I have always been a big fan of Francis. I love his story, I love what it's about. Honestly, I think it's a 50/50 fight. Francis is a scary man. But I think technically I would come out ahead. But I think it’s a great fight.”

Of course, it's extremely unlikely that Aspinall and Ngannou will ever meet in the cage, as the UFC almost never agrees to promote fights together. However, there is another superfight Aspinall could get if Ngannou or a unified heavyweight title fight doesn't materialize: light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.

“Poatan” has been hinting at a move up to heavyweight this year and when he finally decides to make the jump, Aspinall will be more than happy to welcome him in a champion versus champion fight.

“I like the idea,” Aspinall said. “It’s up to Alex. He does tremendous work at light heavyweight, obviously he also did tremendous work at middleweight. So that's entirely up to him. If he wants to come and test his heavyweight skills, contact me. I am in favor.”

Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen, but for now Aspinall is just waiting. The interim champion is set to serve as a replacement fighter for the Jones-Miocic fight at UFC 309 next month and revealed that plans are already underway for next steps if his services are not needed then.

“I’m currently training to be the backup fighter,” Aspinall said. “I will fight. Do I think it will happen? Probably not. But I will be prepared when the time comes. And we just talked to the UFC, we have some plans. I can’t reveal them at the moment because they’re top secret, but there’s big news coming soon.”