UFC heavyweight contender Tom Aspinall was left speechless by Francis Ngannou’s performance against Tyson Fury.
On November 11, Aspinall will step inside the Octagon for an interim heavyweight title tilt with fellow finisher and top-five ranked opponent Sergei Pavlovich. The pairing was put together after undisputed titleholder Jon Jones suffered a pectoral injury that will keep him on the shelf for upwards of eight months.
Days away from his first shot at UFC gold, Aspinall spoke with BBTV Boxing on YouTube to discuss the only thing the combat sports community seems interested in talking about these days, Fury vs. Ngannou.
“Absolutely shocking. I was shocked,” Aspinall said of Ngannou’s performance against Fury. “A minute into the fight, I was like, ‘Ngannou is absolutely lost here.’ Like, he doesn’t know what to do, but then he showed me so much. I thought we would have gone way [overboard] with the misses, gassing himself out and Tyson would have just outboxed him. I don’t know what happened. I’m at a loss for words, honestly.
“I obviously am friends with Tyson. I’ve known him for a long time now. I have no relationship with Francis Ngannou at all, but I think… I don’t know how boxing is scored as much as MMA, but I think Ngannou won the fight. I just think… I don’t know. I’m shocked and at a loss for words. I don’t know how that happened.”
Ngannou knock down fury pic.twitter.com/1YG6IY0T2l
— lady Queen (@KemJustine2) October 31, 2023
Tom Aspinall Loathes the Business Model of Professional Boxing
Aspinall also shared his utter disdain for professional boxing. Not the athletic side, but the business side that has plagued the once-beloved sport for many years.
“I absolutely love boxing as a sport. Absolutely love it, but I hate the business model of boxing,” Aspinall said. “Like me and [Sergei] Pavlovich, it’s No. 2 against No. 4. In boxing that would never happen in a million years. It would be five years in the making to do something like that. I don’t like the way people are having 20 fights without actually having a fight. I don’t like the way they fight these journeymen. I think it’s dangerous.
He continued, “I just don’t love the way boxing is going and that’s from someone who loves the sport of boxing. Two high-level guys… I love the science of it all. The defense. I love it, but I hate the way the business model is in boxing. I can’t watch it. I hate to. You can look at a 10-fight card and pick out nine winners before the bell has even rung. I hate it. It’s not a sport to me. I don’t think it’s a sport.”
Professional boxing has certainly seen its fair share of struggles in recent years, many of which are self-inflicted, but the uprising of crossover or ‘YouTube boxing’ has seemingly breathed some new life into the sport.
Unfortunately, it’s a double-edged sword with the emergence of MMA stars and social media influencers looking to exploit the industry, but after Logan Paul’s incredibly successful pay-per-view clash with Dillon Danis and now Ngannou vs. Fury being the talk of the town, the sport will simply have to take the good with the bad if it hopes to attract the eyes and revenue of yesteryear.
Watch the full interview below:
