Tom Aspinall “Didn’t Sleep for About Two Weeks” After Landing UFC London Main Event

London — Tom Aspinall heads into UFC London with plenty of anticipation.

It is, after all, the British heavyweight’s first UFC main event. His first time fighting at home for the promotion. And his first time competing in front of a full house of fans for the company.

That’s a lot of firsts for Aspinall (11-2), who was originally scheduled to face Shamil Abdurakhimov earlier on the card.

“I didn’t sleep for about two weeks when I found out, not gonna lie,” Aspinall told Cageside Press about the upgrade, speaking at the UFC London media day on Wednesday. “Yeah, Volkov’s a massive fight. Every fight in the UFC’s massive, I’m not going to lie and say that it’s not. Every fight in the UFC is massive. But someone like Volkov, who I personally have been watching since he was Bellator champion, it’s massive for me. It’s massive.”

It’s a mixture of factors that elevate the London card’s main event, according to Aspinall. “Just with that kind of name, what he brings to the table, the experience that he’s got, I’m aware of what a big fight it is. I’ve definitely not took him lightly, that’s for sure. I’ve treated him exactly how he should be treated, which is very, very serious.”

Aspinall enters the fight with Volkov at the crest of a new wave of heavyweight fighters in the UFC, along with names like Tai Tuivasa and Chris Daukaus. The movement is something Aspinall recognizes, and he sees a long, and possibly intertwined, future for the trio in the promotion.

“Definitely. We’re all like young, up-and-coming guys at this point. Big fan of both guys. I think both guys are very skilled,” Daukaus stated. “Obviously Chris took a bad one in his last fight, but this is heavyweight MMA. That happens sometimes. Tai has also been up and down in his career, and now he’s on a good run. So yeah, those guys are definitely— we’re all going to fight each other. We’re all going to fight each other once, twice, we’ll have trilogies possibly. Me and Tai are late 20s, I’m not sure exactly how old Chris is, but we’ve got another ten years left in this thing.”

Watch the full UFC London media day scrum with Tom Aspinall above. More coverage from the event can be found below. Aspinall faces Alexander Volkov atop the Fight Night card this Saturday, March 19, 2022 at the O2 Arena in London, England.