Outside Source
Tom Aspinall says he’s made significant improvements since his last Octagon appearance. | Getty/UFC
Tom Aspinall spent much of the past year waiting for a heavyweight title unification bout against Jon Jones, but as it turns out, waiting isn’t exactly the right way to describe what he was doing during his layoff.
“…There were a lot of times when the UFC would tell me, ‘The Jon Jones fight is happening in three months.’ for example,” Aspinall recently told TNT Sports. “So we’d start the training camp, the intensity would up and then the date would get moved.
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“That happened like three or four times and then eventually he retired. So it wasn’t like I was literally sat waiting for the full year. I did think that the fight was going to come. Everyone was saying, ‘Why are you waiting?’ I wasn’t waiting. I was getting told that the fight was happening, so there was nothing I could really do. My hands were completely tied completely by the UFC.”
Aspinall Discusses Benefits of Layoff, Title Fight Pressure
While Aspinall repeatedly expressed his frustration with the inactivity, there was a silver lining to the ordeal.
“It has given me a massive opportunity to get better, because I’m not just training without a goal,” Aspinall said. “I did think I had a goal a few times I was working towards, and it didn’t materialize. So I did have the intensity of a training camp… My improvement in the last year has been massive. I can’t wait to go out there and show it.”
When Jones retired in late June (“Bones” has since returned to the drug testing pool in hopes of fighting at the White House), Aspinall was promoted to undisputed heavyweight champion. Shortly thereafter, a title defense against Ciryl Gane was announced for UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 25. It will be Aspinall’s first Octagon appearance since defending the interim belt with a first-round knockout of Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in July 2024.
“It’s not just me wbo’s under pressure. It’s his third title shot and he failed the first two,” Aspinall said of Gane. “It’s definitely a lot of pressure on me but there’s pressure on both of us. Every fight you go into, there’s pressure.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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