Friday afternoon, the UFC hosted their 30th anniversary Q&A at the o2 Arena in which UK legends, Michael Bisping, Ian Freeman, Brad Pickett and Jimi Manuwa were involved. As well as that, current UK standout Tom Aspinall was in attendance.
The aforementioned Aspinall has been out of action since his main event bout with Curtis Blaydes back in July 2022, in which he tore his ACL within the first 10 seconds of the fight. Unfortunately for both men, that fight had title implications attached to it as whoever made the statement win would’ve had the grounds to call for a title shot.
Since then, the 29-year-old Brit has spoken about being in a dark place since his injury, but fortunately, he is now feeling himself again.
At the 30th anniversary Q&A, he said: “The knee is fantastic right now, I’m back in training and listen, I just want to get one thing straight.
“We need to secure another UK card for this year and I’ve got that Big Polish Dummy calling me out online so if Marcin Tybura wants it let’s bring it back to the UK this summer.”
Due to Aspinall having being out of action for almost a year, the top of the heavyweight division has fluctuated. In an ideal world, he would come back and fight somebody inside the top 4, but their availibilites are limited. That’s where Marcin Tybura enters the picture.
“At the moment there’s not many free guys in the top 10, everyone’s matched and as far as I can see, he’s the only guy who’s willing to take the fight. He wants to fight he’s said verbally and if someone says publicly that they want to fight me of course I’m going to fight them I’m not backing down from no one and we’re two European guys, lets do it in the UK,” he said.
Tom Aspinall has said recently that a fight with Jones is a massive goal for him, however, a fight and win over Marcin Tybura likely doesn’t get him much closer to that goal.
“I really believe I can do it you know [beat Jon Jones]. I don’t want to be one of these people who are talking, I’m not that kind of guy. I want to work my way up, I don’t deserve the fight yet— no way nowhere near deserve the fight. Get some more experience and then I want to take out the GOAT,” Aspinall said.
