Manchester — Should Tom Aspinall defend his interim heavyweight title at UFC 304 this Saturday, there’s a chance he could some day be promoted to the undisputed heavyweight champ.
The man who currently holds that title, Jon Jones, is rehabbing from injury, expected to return later this year against Stipe Miocic. Fans have been waiting years for that match-up, and many feel “Bones” will call it a career after that fight.
Should Aspinall’s fight with Curtis Blaydes count as a title defense, with that in mind? Aspinall isn’t dwelling on questions like that.
“I’m not really focused on that right now, to be honest. All that stuff is kind of out of my control, like all this political stuff with Jon and Stipe, and the interim stuff and the defense stuff,” Aspinall (14-3) told media outlets including Cageside Press during Wednesday’s UFC 304 media day. “I’m not really too bothered about it. I’m just focused on beating Curtis Blaydes, and that’s it.”
On the subject of Blaydes, the fight on the surface seems to be jiu-jitsu vs. wrestler, with Aspinall’s BJJ paired up with Blaydes’ wrestling. Aspinall doesn’t view the pairing through that lens, however.
“Even though we’ve got both decent grappling backgrounds, this is an MMA fight,” said Aspinall, noting that both he and his opponent have been training in MMA for a long time. “I look at it a little bit different to a lot of other people. I don’t look at it as individual stuff, I don’t look at it like ‘oh this guy’s a good wrestler, and this guy’s a good striker,’ and whatever. This is MMA. I look at MMA as a sport on its own, I don’t look at it as five, six, seven different disciplines.”
That means you need to be good in everything, Aspinall added. “We’re both decent in grappling, but we’re both top of the top level MMA fighters. So it’s going to be interesting.”
Aspinall has the shortest average fight time in the UFC at the moment, but believe it or not, it’s not something the interim champ cares about.
“It’s nice to have but it’s not something I try to have. I always go into a fight, honestly, on the contrary to what people think, I prepare for a hard five rounds every time,” said Aspinall. And while his opponents consistently talk about dragging him into deep waters, none ever has. “The reason I’ve never been to them places before is because no one’s good enough to take me there. And that’s not me being cocky, that’s the reality of it.”
Watch the full UFC 304 media day appearance by Tom Aspinall above.
