Tom Aspinall believes his destiny is to become the UFC heavyweight world champion and he’s more than willing to go through anyone, including Jon Jones, to get it.
Aspinall took another step toward heavyweight title contention on Saturday night, scoring an impressive 73-second KO against Marcin Tybura inside London’s O2 Arena. Following the victory, Aspinall took the opportunity to shoot his shot, calling out heavyweight king Jon Jones for a future clash in the cage. “Sounds good lol,” Jones tweeted in response.
During his appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Tom Aspinall accused ‘Bones’ of patronizing him with his somewhat-condescending response on social media.
“I’m just putting it out there. Jon Jones is a patronizing guy. I think he’s trying to patronize me. How dare he try to patronize me. How dare he,” Aspinall said with a laugh.
“Yeah, I don’t know. Whatever,” he added. “That’s my dream fight so I’ll do whatever I can to get that.”
With his victory over Tybura at UFC London, Aspinall is now an impressive 6-1 inside the Octagon, his lone loss being the result of a freak knee injury 15 seconds into his bout with Curtis Blaydes last year. Sitting in the No. 5 spot on the rankings, Aspinall is likely one big win away from a potential meeting with Jon Jones for the heavyweight title.
“He’s fought a lot of quicker guys before. I don’t mean quicker than me. I mean quicker than most heavyweights, being a light heavyweight, obviously,” Aspinall said when asked how a bout between Jones and himself might go.
“But he’s never fought someone quicker than a light heavyweight who’s bigger than him before. Who is super confident with big fight IQ. Who’s not intimidated, who’s young, fresh, and not multiple miles on the clock, and who brings something different. That’s what I think I bring to the table against Jon.”
Tom Aspinall on Jon Jones: I think he tried to patronize me.#TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/gJnNcNa6Qa
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) July 24, 2023
Tom Aspinall is No Longer Asking… He’s Demanding
Looking better than ever, Tom Aspinall believes his ascension to the top of the heavyweight division is imminent. Asked if he sees himself becoming the heavyweight champion within the year, he said:
“Yes. Do you know why? Because that time off showed me a lot of truths about myself. A lot of times I think about exactly what I want. What I want to do and how I’m going to go about doing it. It’s gonna sound corny, but I really, really welcome greatness. I feel like before, maybe I had a little bit of imposter syndrome. I was just enjoying the right and stuff.”
With a 100% finish rate inside the Octagon, Aspinall has always been a swing-first and ask-questions-later kind of fighter, but according to the UK native, he’s no longer going to bother with the asking part.
“I’m getting what I want and I’m forcing my way through it whereas before, I was a little bit too happy to sit on the fence a little bit, be the nice guy, and do all that stuff. I’m still a nice person. I still give off positive energy, but I’m going for what I want and I what I want is to spend my life doing this sport. I’ve spent my life working toward being the UFC heavyweight champion of the world and I’m going to knock everyone down who’s in my way, simple as that.”
