Tom Aspinall is on the comeback path.
As one of many Heavyweight division’s greatest rising stars, if not the perfect, Aspinall suffered an unlucky 15-second loss in his final battle with Curtis Blaydes in July 2022, tearing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Surgically repaired and able to return, Aspinall, 30, will headline UFC London on July 22, 2023, towards Marcin Tybura.
The pairing got here as considerably of a shock for a lot of due to Aspinall’s prolonged eight-fight unbeaten streak (5 in UFC, all by end) earlier than his harm towards Blaydes. Aspinall is No. 5 in UFC’s Heavyweight rankings, contrasting Tybura’s No. 10 spot. In the end, the Brit needs to spotlight that the ultimate match up isn’t all the time the primary.
“I wasn’t left with a lot alternative, to be trustworthy,” Aspinall informed The Mac Life. “Lots of people preserve asking, ‘Why you combating him?’ I’m like, properly, to start with, individuals are performing like I’m so much higher than him. The man is actually High 10 hardest folks on the planet. The man is within the High 10 on the planet, that’s good, that’s actually good. Additionally, he’s had about 3 times extra UFC fights than me so let’s not act like he’s some bum as a result of he’s not.
“The explanation I’m combating him is as a result of — there’s lots of people within the UFC who love to do interviews and say, ‘I’ll battle anyone, I’m a savage, I’m a gangster, and all this,’” he continued. “However when it really involves accepting fights, they don’t really settle for the battle. There’s plenty of that that goes on. Not simply in my division, throughout a number of weight divisions. That’s occurred, and in addition, plenty of the High 10 had been already booked so I needed to battle down within the rankings somewhat bit, which I’m effective with.”
Aspinall feels reinvigorated after the break day, which helped him additional perceive how deeply he loves combined martial arts (MMA). A win over Tybura may not be sufficient to get him a title shot, however Aspinall is simply wanting ahead to getting his toes moist once more and reminding everybody what he’s able to.
“I really feel like I’ve bought a chip on my shoulder,” Aspinall mentioned. “I simply wish to show to everybody and in addition myself that I’m f—king higher than Peter Griffin holding his knee (laughs).”
