Tom Aspinall addressed his sudden and unexpected beef with Irish superstar Conor McGregor.
Last week, Aspinall was a bit surprised to find that he was the target of McGregor’s latest Twitter tirade after the heavyweight contender revealed in an interview that he was not terribly excited about McGregor’s return later this year. Speaking with Jamal Niaz on his YouTube channel, Aspinall said:
“I’m honestly not that interested (in McGregor’s return),” Aspinall admitted. “I’ll still watch it, but I’m more hyped about other fights. There are way more interesting fights than this. The heavyweight fights, the London Card; I could sit here, and name fights all day.”
‘The Notorious’ did not take kindly to the perceived disrespect from Aspinall and launched a since-deleted Twitter rant directed at the UK native, threatening to “starve” and “kill” him for the imagined slight.
“Bum prick. Say sayonara to that gk deal kid,” McGregor wrote in reference to Aspinall’s endorsement with apparel company Gym King. “Starve you and kill you I will you f*cking disrespectful prick. Don’t ever speak my name in disrespect again. Mush potato head.”
Tom Aspinall Says He Meant No Disrespect in His Comments About Conor McGregor’s Return
Days later, Tom Aspinall had the opportunity to address McGregor’s comments during an interview with Sky Sports. Aspinall insisted that his comments were not meant to be disrespectful and simply wanted to move past the incident.
“Conor told me not to speak about him anymore so I’m going to respect that. I don’t… He’s a scary guy. I don’t want anyone… He made threats so I’m gonna back off. I ain’t gonna talk about him no more if that’s the case.
“I didn’t disrespect him in any way. I would never disrespect him or anybody, you know what I mean. You’ve met me plenty times and I’m not that kind of character. I wouldn’t disrespect anyone, especially someone like him who’s a massive pioneer of the sport. All I said was I’m more interested in other fights. There’s a freakin’ heavyweight title fight coming up this weekend. In my division. Of course, I’m going to be more invested in that, but who knows? Like I say, his name is staying out of my mouth right now. I don’t want none of that.”
Asked if the sudden attack from McGregor could stem from the pair having a history with one another, Aspinall insisted that is not the case, revealing that he has never even spoken to Conor McGregor, nor do they share any mutual acquaintances that would explain such a vicious response for a relatively harmless comment.
“There’s no history. I’ve never talked to him before. We don’t have any mutual friends or nothing like that. It’s quite surprising really because the guy who’s channel it was on… Like, it’s not a big channel or anything and usually I don’t do interviews on smaller channels, but the guy, I know him personally and I’m quite friendly with him. He’s actually my friend, so that’s surprising that he’d seen the interview, but like I said, I didn’t feel like I said anything. I would never disrespect anyone, especially not someone like him. It was unintentional if he felt that way.”
