Tom Aspinall sympathizes with the fans who have to stay up until 6AM to watch him fight.
UFC 304 might as well be a double-edged sword as the premier promotion returns to Manchester, England under not-so-great circumstances. The UK fans finally get a home game, but they’ll have to stay awake all night like they usually do as the pay-per-view event on July 27th is scheduled to air on American primetime.
For locals, the first fight of the very long night will start at 11pm BST with the main card taking place at 3AM. England’s interim heavyweight champion Aspinall is targeted to be on the card and could make the walk to the Octagon as late as 6AM.
Just Another Day In The Office
Being an ‘anytime, anywhere’ kind of fighter, Aspinall says the super-late start time doesn’t affect him all that much.
“As an athlete, as a fighter, in all honesty, doesn’t make that much difference,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel. “Probably for a couple of weeks before I have to wake up and train at that time or stay up whatever. I’ve flown across the world multiple times and fought on different time zones, so it’s not as bad as that.”
Aspinall Shreds UFC 304 Start Time From A Fans’ Perspective
However, the Brit does feels bad for those in attendance, as it will be a totally different story for the fans come fight night… or should we say fight morning?
“As a fan who wants to watch it live, I think it is absolutely terrible,” Aspinall admitted. “I think yeah, it’s just not fair on the fans, not fair on the UK fans, obviously. Predominantly it’s an American audience, so I understand that they wanna sell to them, but why can’t they sell to them in the afternoon, which is our evening time? Why can’t the Americans watch it in the afternoon and the UK fans, the Manchester fans, the European fans can all fly to the event, sell out this new arena? I mean, it’s gonna sell out regardless, mate.
“Let’s Put It On UK Time”
The last pay-per-view event in England came at UFC 286 whereas the fans were given a treat with UK primetime. This hasn’t always been the case though as UFC 204 (which also took place in Manchester) was also held on American primetime just as UFC 304 is.
Tom Aspinall offers a solution to make things right with the UK fans who watch UFC events from across the pond at unreasonable times already.
“We’re very, very, very, very, very lucky to have a pay-per-view event in Manchester,” Aspinall said. “Very lucky. But UK MMA, let’s put it on UK time.”
Three months out from the event, we’ll see if the UFC budges on a UK-friendly start time for UFC 304.
