Tom Aspinall believes Ciryl Gane will teach Francis Ngannou a lesson in mixed martial arts.

The two former sparring partners are expected to meet at some point later this year in a unification heavyweight super-fight. 

And Aspinall is expecting 'Bon Gamin' to unify the belts with a shock victory over the 34-year-old UFC heavyweight champion.   

"I personally think that Gane is going to school him," Aspinall - who trains with Darren Till at Team Kaobon in Liverpool - told GIVEMESPORT.

"That's just my personal opinion, just because Ngannou has a massive fear factor when you fight him, and because Gane has sparred him a lot, the fear factor will be nowhere near as much for him, and I think he's very, very good technically. 

"Obviously, Ngannou is very good and very dangerous as well, so I wouldn't be surprised if Ngannou won. 

"But if I had to choose, I would probably choose Gane I think to win it."

Like Gane, Aspinall also has his own fair share of admirers, none more so than Michael Bisping himself, who recently described his fellow Mancunian as 'the real deal' during Saturday night's live broadcast at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

While Aspinall expressed gratitude to Bisping for his kind words, he insists he can't afford to let himself get distracted by all the noise outside of the cage. 

"Real recognises real, don't it? It's good, it's nice, but again it's outside stuff isn't it, it's just outside stuff," he added.

"You can be the best guy in the world, like no, everyone can think that you're the best fighter in the world, but if you don't believe in yourself, what are you doing?

"And it works the other way round as well, a lot of people may think you're terrible, but if you believe you're very good, it just matters what you think yourself, really, it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks. 

"Obviously, Mike Bisping, now when we're talking about the word hero, Mike Bisping is a hero for me, you know, he's everything that I think is great inside and outside of the octagon. 

"It's nice to hear that kind of stuff from people like that, it's nice to hear stuff like that anytime you hear something nice off of anybody, even if they don't know what they're talking about, it's nice isn't it?

"But again it doesn't really mean anything, does it? It really only matters what you think about yourself."

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