UFC star Tom Aspinall has hired Chael Sonnen as his "media representative" following their dispute about his lack of trash-talking.
Aspinall, who is ranked at No.6 in the UFC heavyweight division, shies away from bad-mouthing any of his opponents and prefers to let his fighting skills do the talking. His humble approach of self-promotion was criticised by Sonnen, who was a notorious trash talker during his UFC days.
The Atherton-based heavyweight said he was more than happy being himself and didn't need to act like a WWE entertainer for views and money. Aspinall will now rely on Sonnen to do his talking for him, hiring the MMA analyst and commentator to take care of his media opportunities.
"I really am going to handle the media going into Tom for this fight," Sonnen told The Mac Life. "We're just going to see what happens. If the audience enjoys it then we will go from there. Tom fights and trains very well but I wanted to give him the attention he deserves.
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"When I see a guy like Tom that's 12-2 that not only fought a former world champion, he also stopped him. He needs to be getting attention for that. I'll remind you of that main event, it was completely sold out with Tom at the top of the bill.
"Tom gets the credit for that, I don't know that Tom always goes out and demands that credit though. I think that Tom is one fight away from being in a world championship spot and not for nothing, they've dealt him from the bottom of the deck."
Aspinall is scheduled to fight Curtis Blaydes in the main event of UFC London on July 23. The fight could produce the next challenger for Francis Ngannou's heavyweight title, with Sonnen believing that Aspinall will be next in line for the champion.
"I think Tom's a very sweet guy and he wants to come off as authentic. Nice guys finish last in this sport, we may not like that but it's true. Even the great Georges St-Pierre had one of the hardest rises to get to a main event because he didn't want to talk bad about his opponents," he added.
"I said 'Tom, you go in the gym and do what you do' let me let people know the five w's. Who, what, when, why and where, so they can tune in and watch. Most importantly whoever wins this fight gets their credit and they should get the next title fight, I think Tom will."
