Tom Aspinall Had 1 Issue With Ciryl Gane's UFC Freedom 250 Win vs Alex Pereira

There seemed to be two reactions to Ciryl Gane’s second-round TKO win over Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250 on Sunday that won him the interim heavyweight championship.

On one side, there were those who were impressed with the way Gane beat up Pereira, a former two-division champion who was making his heavyweight debut after a seven-fight run at light heavyweight.

On the other side were those concerned that Gane's win came thanks to some seemingly illegal elbows to the back of Pereira's that weren't caught by referee Herb Dean.

Reigning UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall falls in that category, and Aspinall was quick to point out that Gane may have gotten away with some shady strikes as he live-streamed his reaction to the fight.

"[The elbows] look a bit illegal," Aspinall said on his YouTube channel. "They look very illegal. What is going on? Dropped him with a jab and he's swinging now trying to finish him."

Aspinall wasn't the only one to call out the illegal elbows either. Many fans on social media were complaining about the same thing.

Video replay of the finish shows Gane appearing to land roughly 8-10 elbows to the side and back of Pereira's head after he was knocked down. Gane finished the fight a few seconds later, knocking Pereira out on his feet.

There's history between Aspinall and Gane - and not the good kind.

The two met back at UFC 321 in October but the fight ended in a no contest after Gane poked Aspinall in the eye. His injury was bad enough the fight had to be stopped, and Aspinall hasn't fought or been back in the gym ever since.

Some believe Gane was winning the fight up until the eye poke, with some believing Aspinall made the injury out to be worse than it was to end the fight so he wouldn't take a loss on his record.

Now that Gane has won three of his last four fights and is seemingly the unquestioned No. 1 heavyweight in the division right now, it's expected that he and Aspinall will rematch for the undisputed heavyweight title upon his return.

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This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 4:14 PM.