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Daniel Cormier believes Tom Aspinall realizes that his biggest paydays remain under the UFC banner.

Things have been quite testy between the heavyweight champion and the UFC brass ever since Aspinall suffered double pokes to both eyes during a title defense against Ciryl Gane. After the fight, Aspinall was none too pleased with UFC CEO Dana White’s post-fight comments. While Aspinall believes White made it seem like he had a choice to continue fighting after being poked, the UFC boss insists that he never meant to rock the boat with his champion.

Aspinall signed a talent agency deal with Matchroom, which is run by White’s fierce boxing promoter rival Eddie Hearn. While tensions were building, Aspinall’s team says he’s ready to go for a title unification bout against Gane, who has since captured interim gold.

In a video uploaded on his YouTube channel, Cormier expressed optimism in seeing Aspinall back inside the Octagon soon, and the UFC Hall of Famer thinks it’s exactly where he belongs (via MMAJunkie).

“Tom Aspinall goes out there into the open market and you could say he can fight Francis Ngannou, he will make a boatload of money one time,” Cormier said. “And then what happens afterwards? There’s only one place to be, and that’s for him to be in the UFC. So all the bickering, the back-and-forth, I get it. I get it’s business, but ultimately he’s got to be there. It just doesn’t work if not. Tom Aspinall, to his credit, for the first time, spoke on it, and he said, I’m not leaving the UFC.’ … You know, that, to me, probably needed to happen sooner. That to me also tells me that Tom recognizes this is where I have to fight in order to make my big money.”

Gane pulled off a second-round TKO finish over Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250 to win the interim heavyweight title for the second time in his career. “Bon Gamin” has yet to earn the undisputed distinction, but he hopes to have his rematch with Aspinall booked for a chance to change that.

Do you think the issues between Tom Aspinall and UFC are simmering down? Join in on the conversation in the comments below.

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