London, England — This Saturday UFC heavyweight Tom Aspinall makes his much anticipated return to action after injuring his knee almost a year ago to the day.
The fifth ranked heavyweight was on the verge of a title shot before his devastating injury against Curtis Blaydes, and since then has opened up about the mental struggles around being inactive.
The UFC recently announced that Jon Jones will take on Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 with the next contender after that seemingly unknown. Sergei Pavlovich is someone who has captured the eyes of a lot of fans, but despite weighing in as a back-up for Jones and Ciryl Gane, it is not certain that he is next.
Aspinall (12-3) believes that if he wins emphatically in his main event fight with Marcin Tybura on Saturday, he could jump in as the next contender. Speaking during the UFC London media day on Thursday, he said that “Heavyweight MMA kind of has its own rules in my opinion. If I’m rank number five and I fight rank number 10 which is what’s happening and I lie on him for five rounds and it’s a boring fight, it’s not really going to move me up at all.
“If I go out there and knock him out in 30 seconds with some crazy spinning elbow, that’s going to put me as the number one contender and that’s just the way it works, it doesn’t always come down to rankings, it comes down to impressive performances.”
The 30-year-old has continuously admitted that a fight with Jon Jones is his dream fight, and with the heavyweight division being so open, it could be close around the corner. How long Jones will be around for though is questionable, despite him still having several fights on his recently new deal.
Aspinall admitted that he hopes Jones sticks around after the Miocic fight, saying “I hope so, that’s my dream fight. My goal in the future moving forward is not only to win, but I want to excite Jon Jones. At this point he probably doesn’t know who I am, he probably doesn’t and that’s fine, but I want him to watch me fight in the next few fights and think, I need to stick around for this guy.
“I want him to look at me and think ‘I need to test myself against this guy’ and be excited about guys like me coming through and want to take that challenge.”
Aspinall also noted that he might be helping Tyson Fury training for his boxing match against former UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou. And while Ngannou has a puncher’s chance in the fight, “it’s a very, very, very, very, very small puncher’s chance.”
Watch the full UFC London media day appearance by Tom Aspinall above.
