Manchester — Coming away from a big win in the UFC 304 co-main event on Saturday, the buzz around Tom Aspinall seems different.
In years past, Aspinall was positioned as the future, the next wave, a new generation of heavyweight with speed, timing, accuracy, and a solid ground game to compliment a developing stand-up skillset.
The future, it appears, is now. Following a one-minute KO of Curtis Blaydes in Manchester, Aspinall is suddenly being called the best heavyweight active today, with apologies to Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic, neither of whom have been all that active.
“The performance is messy, to be honest,” Aspinall (15-3) told media outlets including Cageside Press following the fight, critiquing what most saw as an impeccable showing. Still, he added, “if I hit anybody clean, they’re going over. That’s what’s going on these days. If I hit someone clean, they’re going over, and there’s no arguments about that. It’s proven now.”
From Blaydes, Aspinall found a couple of surprises in those 60 seconds of cage time. “Curtis was actually a lot slower than I thought, but he really had long arms. So a few of his punches I thought were going to miss, and they got me.”
There was some criticism, first in the cage from Blaydes and later online, that the UFC 304 co-headliner had been stopped early. Not surprisingly, Aspinall wasn’t agreeing with that while speaking with the media following the event.
“What kind of idiot is saying that? I dropped him with a 1-2, he’s face down on the canvas, I’ve got 250lbs on his back, and I’m landing seven, eight unanswered shots. Where is he going to go?” questioned Aspinall, incredulous. “Where is Curtis Blaydes going to go after that? There’s only one place he’s going to go, and it’s to sleep. Are we going to let it get to that point, or are we going to look after fighter safety? Because I don’t want it to get to that point. He’s unable to intelligently defend himself, and it was stopped at the right time. Great reffing my Marc Goddard.”
Jon Jones. Stipe Miocic. The only two names in the UFC’s heavyweight division with a larger profile than Tom Aspinall at the moment are expected to collide in November. UFC President and CEO Dana White, in his own post-fight press conference appearance, was open to Aspinall serving as backup — but that could mean sitting out the better part of a year, waiting to fight the winner.
Asked about possibly getting the itch to fight in the interim, Aspinall questioned who that would against. “Like who?”
When names like Ciryl Gane and Alexander Volkov were offered, the British heavyweight declined. “Nah. I want to fight Jon Jones. Or Stipe. Let’s not discredit Stipe and what he’s done. I think a lot of people are looking past him, probably sometimes me, to be honest. But whoever wins that one, I’m fighting next, for sure. Unless they both retire.”
Retirement is a possibility for one if not both, and there’s always the chance Aspinall’s performance at UFC 304 actually pushes a marquee match-up further away, with neither Jones nor Miocic having anything left to prove at this stage of their careers. Aspinall isn’t sure himself if a quick win over Blaydes might have pushed the Jones fight out of reach.
“I have no idea. I don’t know. Jon Jones is a strange guy, man. I don’t know what he’s doing. He does some weird moves. I’m just over here trying to be the best heavyweight in the world, trying to be the best version of myself.”
Watch the full UFC 304 post-fight press conference with Tom Aspinall above.
