The Ultimate Fighting Championship announced Tuesday that Tom Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) will defend his heavyweight title for the first time against Ciryl Gane in the UFC 321 headliner at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 25.

As of Wednesday afternoon, DraftKings had Aspinall installed as a -298 ‘chalk’ vs. Gane, who is a +240 underdog.

During his UFC tenure that dates back to July of 2020, the 32-year-old Aspinall has seven of his eight wins via first-round finishes inside of 3:45. His other victory came by second-round submission (rear-naked choke) at the 1:09 mark vs. Andrei Arlovski.

The only blemish on Aspinall’s UFC resume is a 15-second TKO loss to Curtis Blaydes in the UFC London headliner on July 23 of 2022. In that contest, Aspinall shredded his knee on his first kick attempt of the bout, rendering him unable to continue.

The Team Kaobon (in Manchester, England) member has bounced back with three straight knockout wins in 73, 69 and 60 seconds over Marcin Tybura, Sergei Pavlovich and Blaydes. Aspinall won the interim heavyweight belt with his win over Pavlovich at UFC 295 on Nov. 11 of 2023.

Aspinall defended his interim strap by making quick work of Blaydes in their rematch at UFC 304 in Manchester last July. He was promoted to undisputed champion on June 21 after Jon Jones announced his retirement.

Aspinall has bagged seven Performance of the Night bonuses in his nine Octagon appearances, including three in a row. He is tied for the fourth-most POTN bonuses in UFC history and the fourth-most post-fight bonuses in UFC heavyweight annals.

Aspinall owns the shortest average fight time in UFC history (2:02), the highest number of significant strikes landed per minute in UFC heavyweight history (8.07), the largest striking differential in promotional history (5.18) and the least bottom position time in UFC history (0:01).

The 35-year-old Gane (13-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) won his first 10 career fights and his first seven UFC bouts, including a third-round KO win over Derrick Lewis to win the interim heavyweight title at UFC 265 in August of 2021. However, he lost a unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) vs. Francis Ngannou at UFC 270.

Gane got back in the win column with a third-round KO win over Tai Tuivasa in a contest that won Fight of the Night honors at UFC Paris in September of 2022. The win earned the Frenchman another shot at UFC gold vs. Jones at UFC 285, but he lost via first-round submission (guillotine choke) in only 124 seconds.

Gane has responded with back-to-back wins over Serghei Spivac (second-round TKO at UFC Paris on Sept. 2 of 2023) and Alexander Volkov, but the split-decision win over Volkov at UFC 310 last December drew intense scrutiny.

According to MMADecisions, 18 media members scored the contest 29-28 in favor of Volkov. One media member had it 30-27 for Volkov, while one had it 29-28 for Gane.

PREDICTION: Until someone survives Round 1 with Aspinall for the first time since Arlovski did on Feb. 20 of 2021, you can put me down for Aspinall by first-round finish every single time.