Tom Aspinall denies leaving the UFC: "I'm not leaving"
The heavyweight champion has put out a statement to kill an exit rumour. Tom Aspinall has not fought since October, an eye injury took him out, an interim belt was created without him — and this time the rumour came from his own boxing coach.
- Fight Hub
- 27 August 2026
Key takeaways
- Tom Aspinall posted a flat denial on X on Wednesday: he is not leaving the UFC and says he is in daily contact with the promotion.
- The rumour came from his longtime boxing coach, Stipe Drvis, who claimed on an Instagram Live that the champion no longer wanted to fight for the UFC.
- Aspinall has been out since October after the no contest against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321, an eye injury and multiple surgeries. No return date has been announced.
What Tom Aspinall wrote, and where the rumour came from
A denial in four sentences
The post landed on X on Wednesday, and it leaves no room for interpretation: “I’m not leaving the UFC. I’ve never said I have in any interview, and any words that have been taken from others today are simply not true. We are talking with the UFC daily and they will update you guys always.”
Statements like that do not appear for no reason. This one answers a specific claim, not forum chatter.
The rumour came from inside his own camp
It was Stipe Drvis, his longtime boxing coach, who started it during an Instagram Live, saying the champion no longer wanted to fight for the promotion. That is why Aspinall moved fast and in writing: when the source is wearing the team tracksuit, a spokesman’s denial does not cut it.
The nuance is worth setting down. Aspinall is not saying everything is fine with the UFC. He is saying he is not leaving, and that words were put in his mouth. Those are not the same thing, and what follows explains why the distinction matters.
Ten months out, and an interim belt made without him
An eye, and a fight that never produced a winner
Aspinall has not fought since October. His title defense against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 ended in a no contest: fingers in the eye, and a champion unable to continue. What might have stayed an in-fight incident became a lasting medical problem — a rare condition causing persistent double vision, and multiple surgeries.
Ten months on, neither he nor the UFC has announced a return date. That is the heaviest fact in the file, and it explains everything else.
Meanwhile, the division moved on
The UFC did not wait. An interim belt was put up, and Ciryl Gane won it by beating Alex Pereira. The Frenchman therefore became interim champion off the back of the very fight against Aspinall that never reached its end.
The consequence is simple: an Aspinall–Gane rematch is no longer just a rematch, it is a unification. It is expected on a New York card before the end of the year, with nothing official yet.
I'm not leaving the UFC. I've never said I have in any interview, and any words that have been taken from others today are simply not true.
What actually complicates what comes next
Eddie Hearn in the equation
The point the denial does not touch may be the decisive one. Aspinall is now represented by Matchroom, Eddie Hearn’s outfit — a boxing promoter whose relationship with Dana White is no secret to anyone. Routing a UFC champion’s negotiations through that channel does not make them smoother.
White has separately said the two of them need to talk terms before he signs off on the next fight, after disagreements over the eye injury episode. In other words: there is no rupture, but there is a negotiation, and it is not finished.
Why a denial is still news
You could call the exercise minor. It is not. A heavyweight champion inactive for ten months, effectively displaced by an interim titleholder, represented by a rival of his employer, and with people around him speaking publicly on his behalf: any one of those alone is ordinary, the pile-up is not.
Aspinall chose to cut it short rather than let the story be written without him. That is consistent with a man who intends to come back, not one preparing an exit.
What to watch
Three signals, in order. An official return date, which would turn the denial into a fact. A unification announcement against Gane, which would say the negotiation landed. And the silence, if it stretches: a champion who stays inactive while an interim titleholder defends his belt eventually forces a question nobody wants to ask.
Follow it with the real numbers
Tom Aspinall’s full record, his finish rate, Ciryl Gane’s run to the interim title and the updated heavyweight rankings are all in the FightHub app. Download it to catch the return announcement when it comes.
