Tom Aspinall sees himself as a big threat to UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Aspinall (12-3 MMA, 5-1 UFC) quickly climbed up the heavyweight ranks when he finished his first five UFC opponents, including Alexander Volkov. But then the rising Brit ran into Curtis Blaydes last July, who put an end to his run in unfortunate fashion.
Just 15 seconds into the fight, Aspinall blew out his knee and lost by TKO due to injury. Eight months later, and Aspinall is ready to return as he tries to narrow down on Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC).
“I’m very serious about – I’m aware that when I say this stuff, there’s gonna be people laughing at it, but I’m very serious about beating Jon Jones and the other guys on the way up,” Aspinall said in an interview on “The Craic with Peter Carroll.” “I’m deadly serious about it. That’s like my life mission now. I don’t think there’s nothing going to come in my way of that.”
He continued, “For him to be the best, the greatest of all time allegedly and be the UFC champion in my division, it’s just like extra motivation for me. Just an extra kick up the ass to go and work harder and beat these guys, so I’m working on it.”
Aspinall expressed interest in fighting Marcin Tybura next, a matchup he thinks makes sense. Tybura has won back-to-back fights over Alexandr Romanov and Blagoy Ivanov, and seven of his past eight.
“Tybura, he’s good,” Aspinall said. “I think he’s really good. He’s not got the flashiest and most impressive style ever, but he makes people look bad, and he’s won seven of his last eight fights which is really difficult to do at heavyweight. So, I think he’s a good matchup for me definitely.”
He continued, “As far as skill level, I think I’m skill-levels above most of the division to be honest.”
