UFC heavyweight Tom Aspinall sparred hundreds of rounds with Tommy Fury
UFC heavyweight Tom Aspinall defends Tommy Fury after he was heavily booed by spectators during his last fight with late replacement Rolly Lambert in Dubai.
The sixth-ranked UFC heavyweight told Midniteduring an interview that Tommy would spar the older heavyweights in the gym when he was just a teenager. The 29-year-old from Salford also discussed Tommy's bitter rival Jake Paul and potential upcoming contenders, including Conor McGregor.
Will Conor chase the belt in a third weight class in UFC? UK betting company bwin has posted an infographic displaying all double champions in UFC, Bellator and Pride, and a potential road map for McGregor and UFC in 2023. Or would a bout against Jake Paul make more sense right now due to Conor's losses against Dustin Poirier? Read the interview below and Aspinall´s take on Conor's comeback, potential competitors for Paul and Tommy Fury.
Tommy Fury criticism is unjust – he’s a fighter at heart
“I’ve sparred loads of rounds with Tommy.
“One thing I’ll say about Tommy, when he was 16 I was probably in my early twenties. And he was sparring me and a couple of other heavyweights and he’s not a heavyweight, he was a really young guy and pretty inexperienced at the time. He was sparring professional heavyweights and getting stuck in and even though he was massively outsized and a little bit outskilled, he would still get involved and get stuck in and not complain.
“The mindset and the heart is there with Tommy and he’s obviously improved a lot physically and mentally.”
Jake Paul and Tommy Fury would be a great matchup
“I've got an unpopular opinion about Jake Paul, I think Jake Paul's pretty good. I think Jake Paul's been handling himself pretty well in the boxing stuff that he's got into. I know Tommy personally, I've known Tommy since he was 14-years-old. I know that Tommy is from a fighting family. I know Tommy is a good fighter himself. And I think it's a great matchup for both guys and from what I can see it seems a pretty even matchup, which we like to see. We don't like to see one guy versus a sh*t guy. We like to see young guys both hungry and undefeated fighting each other. That's where the excitement comes. What's going to happen? We don’t know. That’s what’s exciting in combat sports.
“Jake Paul and Nate Diaz or Conor McGregor are even fights, definitely. Both guys have got a lot of experience. But I want to see Jake Paul against someone young, hungry and fresh rather than someone with lots of miles on clock like he’s been fighting, which is fair enough for where he is in his career. But sooner or later you’ve got to tick the box of someone in a similar position to where he is. I want to see him and Tommy, that’s who I want.”
Conor McGregor only being called out by Volkanovski and Chandler because of his name
“McGregor has not won for ages has he? He’s not been winning, so why else would they call him out? He’s a massive name in the sport and always has been the biggest name in the sport. They want a big fight, they want loads of exposure, they want the most money which is fair enough.”
I’m not surprised by Israel Adesanya defeat – Alex Pereira has ‘god-given power’
“When you put an absolute freak power wise, who has incredible power, in with anybody, you have to expect they’ll knock someone out even if they are leagues below them. And Adensaya was not leagues above him. If you put someone in there with god given power you’ve got to expect he’s going to knock someone out at all times. I was expecting Adesanya to win, but I wasn’t surprised that Pereira got the stoppage because he does have that god given power.”
I’d love to see Kamaru Usman fight Leon Edwards in the UK – with Molly McCann and Paddy Pimblett on the bill
“I’m likely turning up as a fan. I’d love to see Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards in the UK. It’s incredible the stage we’re at, at the moment with MMA in the UK. What an absolute time to be part of UK MMA. Even Cage Warriors over the weekend, it was absolutely rammed in there. There wasn't a free seat in the place. It's just unbelievable to be part of UK MMA right now. Realistically UFC and MMA is so big in this country right now it doesn't matter who is on the main event, but what a treat it would be to get a UK champion in a title fight on home soil.”
“If the show is in the UK it makes sense to put UK Fighters on. And you can stack it up, you can put Arnold Allen on the card, Nathaniel Wood, Paddy, Molly all these kinds of people.There’s loads, we’ve got so many UFC fighters now I can’t name them all. It should just be the UK versus the world in my opinion. We’ve got enough UK fighters now – do UK versus the world that would be epic.”
Paddy Pimblett’s training partner could be UFC’s next big star
“Cage warriors in my opinion is the best show to fight on if you want to get into the UFC. If you're trying to get into the UFC I would always recommend trying to make a name for yourself in Cage Warriors first. It's like a mini UFC. It runs really well and they look after everyone properly. And there's a fair bit of pressure fighting on those shows because there's a lot of exposure.
“There's a guy on Cage Warriors I’ve seen fight twice – live both times. It’s a guy called Luke Riley, he trains at Next Gen with Paddy Pimblett and Molly, he is a young guy about 22 or 23. I don't know him personally but from what I've seen he's got a lot of potential. Also there’s another guy Caolan Loughran. He's really, really good – I know him personally and I've seen him training a lot and he won the previous week in London. They both can make the UFC, definitely. Cage Warriors is such a great place to build your way up. It's such great exposure and both can definitely do big things in the UFC, but they need to get the experience on Cage Warriors first, don't be in a rush.”
Francis Ngannou would dominate Dana White’s ‘powerslap’
“You have got to go straight to the hardest punches, I imagine that translates well to slapping. You've got to go Francis Ngannou. I bet Tai Tuivasa has got a good slap on him as well, imagine most of the heavyweight division have got a good slap on them but I would say Ngannou and Tuivasa would be some of the hardest slappers in the division.
“I would absolutely not get involved. I want to be able to use my skill not just be the toughest on its own – I absolutely will not be getting involved in that.”
Cristiano Ronaldo’s knee surgeon was shocked by my progress
“The knee is really strong, I'm doing things on it that I have not been able to do in a long time. In terms of time frame, I'm just taking it day by day. I'm not looking for any particular dates. I'll be back when I'm fully confident I can go on and win the UFC title.
“The surgery has been a success. We were unsure whether I would need another surgery or not and it turns out that I don't need another surgery, which is great. The first one was really good and worked as planned. It’s healing and I should be signed off from physio in ten to 12 weeks.
“After that I imagine I would be able to do what I want. I’m already doing a lot but I'm just being careful. I'm not doing any crazy sparring or wrestling training at the moment because it’s still not healed. When I comeback I want to make sure I am 100 percent to go on a title run and beat the whole division. And be absolute levels above everybody else and win the title, there’s nothing holding me back anymore.
“My physio and my surgeon are both extremely shocked about how quick my knee has gotten better because I don’t leave it alone. I’m constantly doing stuff to make sure I'm ahead of the game when it comes to recovery, nutrition, everything. I make sure everything is right. I’m not one of these guys who is going slack off and half do something. I’m very serious about becoming the best heavyweight ever.”
I vow to be more selfish – people got close to me for the wrong reasons
“I've had a lot of time to self-reflect whereas before there was one camp after another for nearly two and half years. I've had a lot of time to self reflect and to realise what I've been doing wrong mentally and physically. And I'm changing those things and I'm going to come back way better mentally and physically.
“Main-eventing in your home country back to back, I let a lot of people around me that should not have been around me. I let a lot of people get close to me who were around me for the wrong reasons. And that will not be happening again. The focus will be on me solely becoming the Heavyweight Champion of the World. Anyone who's around me for any other reason will not be around me anymore. It will only be people who are helping me become Heavyweight Champion of the World. There will not be anyone else around me for any other reason. I'll be picking who is around me very, very closely. I became easily accessible for everyone really; media, fans, people who want to train with me. Everyone was around me and taking little bits of energy from me.
“It’s mentally exhausting. Fighting somebody anyway is mentally draining. Fighting somebody in the UFC is more so. Fighting somebody in the top ten is even more so. And fighting somebody in the main event In your home country is even more so draining. And then when you are giving loads of people attention that don't really deserve it, that will tire you out mentally. I was doing a lot of that when I should not have been.
“I’m the type of person where I struggle to say ‘no’ to people. Or I should say I was the type of person that struggled to say no. It’s not happening anymore, simple as that. I’m a pretty open and friendly person generally and I let people in a little too much and I have too much time for other people – I need to be a lot more selfish moving forward.”
Darren Till ‘can beat anyone in the world’ ahead of return in December
“We’re training partners, we have trained together for a long time. We’ve done a million rounds sparring together. We actually got to the point a few years ago where we stopped sparring with each other – we sparred so many rounds it became pointless. It became a pointless spar. We knew each other's game so well that we were wasting time. Obviously I'm a lot bigger than him as well. Darren’s on a comeback and I think he’s going to look good.
“I think when Darren Till is on form, when he’s on his game mentally and physically, I think he can beat anybody in the world – when he’s on form. The problem is he's had a lot of things holding him back mentally and physically for his last few fights. And he's been a bit all over the place. But this time he's training away. He's been away from home and away from distractions and stuff and I think we're going to see big things from Darren Till When he comes back.”
