Heavyweight Tom Aspinall looking for UFC win against hard hitting Marcin Tybura
Tom Aspinall (12-3, fighting out of Atherton, England) returns to the Octagon looking for a statement win.
Nine wins by KO, three by submission
4 first-round finishes
Has won five of his last six
Tom Aspinall (12-3, fighting out of Atherton, England) returns to the Octagon looking for a statement win.
Nine wins by KO, three by submission
4 first-round finishes
Has won five of his last six
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00 Tom, welcome back to action.
00:04 You saw Tabura earlier this week and immediately asked him why he wasn't fat anymore.
00:10 Were you surprised that he was a bit more svelte coming into fight week?
00:14 I think he's still got that skinny fat thing going though.
00:17 I think he might be hiding a little belly under there.
00:19 No, he looks in good shape. He looks in good shape to be honest with you.
00:22 I think it's a big fight for him.
00:24 It's a big fight for me as well obviously.
00:26 We've both trained hard for it by the looks of things.
00:30 You can tell with his physique.
00:32 I feel like this is a commentary on your ability as well,
00:35 but a lot of people are counting him out.
00:37 They're not really giving him a lot of chance.
00:39 For the outsiders that don't appreciate it, what does he do well that we don't realise?
00:44 He does a lot of things well and I don't understand why people are counting him out
00:49 because he's won seven of his last eight in the rankings as a heavyweight.
00:54 That's a pretty good record mate if you ask me.
00:56 He's very durable. He doesn't quit, which is pretty rare for a heavyweight.
01:01 Usually when heavyweights start to get a little bit tired,
01:03 they start to look for a way out and he definitely doesn't.
01:06 He's got loads and loads of experience and I've took him extremely, extremely seriously.
01:12 You mentioned he doesn't like to quit and go away.
01:15 Are you expecting to be the guy that can put him out and show that you are maybe a bit levels above?
01:21 Yes.
01:23 How excited are you for Sunday morning to not be asked about your knee again?
01:28 Mate, I can't wait to never be asked about my knee again.
01:30 That's going to be excellent.
01:33 I'm going to be moving around in there nice on Saturday night and show everyone that we are at full health
01:39 and everything's recovered mate. I feel good. I feel great.
01:44 I'm fucking sick of talking about the knee mate to be honest with you.
01:47 Are you still going by Tommy Two Legs or did Bispin call you?
01:50 No, Bispin put me off when he called me a paedophile.
01:54 I want to stay away from that register, that sex offenders register.
01:59 I don't want to be linked to that at all. So staying away from that mate.
02:03 Good career choice.
02:04 If you could win this fight by go-go platter, running knee or flying arm triangle, how would you win it?
02:10 Probably running knee.
02:12 The others, heavyweights aren't doing the others.
02:16 So yeah, that suits me.
02:18 Your old mate Tyson Fury is fighting Francis Ngannou soon.
02:22 What are your thoughts on that fight and how do you see Tyson and Francis matching up?
02:27 I think Ngannou's got a puncher's chance but it's a very, very, very, very, very small puncher's chance.
02:36 Very slim chance.
02:38 As someone who has sparred Tyson a lot and seen Tyson up close sparring a lot
02:44 and seen him fight up close, I think that someone with the inexperience of someone like Francis Ngannou,
02:53 it's going to be really tough.
02:54 Obviously, he punches like an absolute truck.
02:56 And if you put Francis Ngannou in there with anybody and tell him that he's allowed to punch him,
03:02 he's got a chance against anybody.
03:04 But Tyson Fury is a master of what he does and it's going to be a tough night for Ngannou, I think.
03:12 Have you spoken to Tyson about the fight?
03:13 Yeah, I spoke to him.
03:14 He called me the other day.
03:16 He asked if I'll help him with training and stuff.
03:19 So we'll see how it goes, mate.
03:20 We'll see how it all goes.
03:21 You know, I've got a busy schedule myself.
03:23 So we'll be in touch again after my fight's over with.
03:27 Last one for me.
03:28 You know, last time you did this and the knee and everything kind of blew up.
03:32 How excited are you to go out there on Saturday and hear "na, na, na, na, na, na, na" again?
03:37 I'm excited for that.
03:38 I can't wait for that.
03:41 I just want to fight again, mate.
03:42 I'm really happy, actually, this time.
03:43 I'm just-- I've missed it more than I realized until I actually got to fight week.
03:49 Like, I'm really, really happy to be here, really grateful to be here.
03:51 And I'm looking forward to it, mate.
03:53 Can't wait.
03:55 Tom, over to your left.
03:56 No one wants to be on an injury layoff, but were there benefits to being off for that length of time in terms of progressing your game,
04:05 finally sort of tuning your skills for this upcoming fight?
04:09 I mean, it gives me a lot of time to get everything right in my life.
04:13 Before-- I don't know, I think I'm kind of a superstitious guy, and if everything's going well,
04:18 I don't really want to change stuff, even if I know it's wrong, if that makes any kind of sense.
04:23 Like, that made sense to me before, but I feel like I've really changed a lot inside and outside of the gym,
04:31 inside and outside of fighting.
04:33 And I think that this time has given me loads of chance to work with loads of good heavyweights in training,
04:39 make sure that my body's looked after and good, make sure that I'm well-rested and that I'm in a good place mentally.
04:44 And, mate, I can sit up here all day and talk about it, how good I am, but ultimately I have to show it on Saturday,
04:49 and that's what I intend on doing.
04:52 We had Molly McCann in here earlier, and she was talking about how her career was going at, like, 100 miles an hour.
04:57 She had a setback, and now she feels a lot calmer and things seem to be coming at her at a slightly slower speed.
05:04 She's seeing things a lot better now.
05:06 Is that going to be a similar case with yourself, do you think?
05:09 I don't know. It's just a fight, mate, to me.
05:13 I'm going in there fighting with someone, and it's irrelevant as to what pressures on me and all that kind of stuff.
05:20 I'm just going in there to do a sport, and I just look forward to that.
05:24 You're looking to make a big statement, get a big win this weekend.
05:27 Heavyweight division is absolutely wide open, there's a clutch of contenders who are all about to be in big match-ups coming up.
05:35 Obviously there's yourself.
05:37 Who else in that heavyweight division would you say are the most dangerous contenders who you might have to face before you get a shot at them?
05:45 There's absolutely loads, mate, there's loads.
05:47 I don't really want to miss anyone off, but the ones who stand out are, like,
05:51 Pavlović, who's ranked number one at the moment, he's on paper the number one contender.
05:55 You've got loads of dangerous guys, mate.
05:58 Obviously there's Surogan, Spivak fighting, there's Tere Vassa fighting Volkov.
06:05 These are all fighters, obviously there's Almeida and Blades.
06:08 These guys are good, mate.
06:10 It's not like ten years ago when they were all old, fat heavyweights who were just standing there punching each other.
06:16 These are guys who are not even in the prime yet, so I think we've got an exciting ten years ahead of us in the heavyweight division.
06:24 It's going to be a great time.
06:25 How far off from a title fight do you think a big stoppage win this weekend will put you?
06:32 Heavyweight MMA has its own rules, in my opinion.
06:36 If I'm ranked number five and I fight ranked number ten, which is what's happening,
06:42 and I lie on him for five rounds and it's a boring fight, it's not really going to move me up at all.
06:48 But if I go out there and knock him out in 30 seconds with some crazy spinning elbow, that's going to put me as a number one contender.
06:54 That's just the way it works, mate.
06:55 It doesn't always come down to rankings, it's like impressive performances.
06:59 It all depends on how the fight goes Saturday.
07:01 What kind of finish am I going to get?
07:03 What kind of win am I going to get?
07:04 How the fight's going to go?
07:06 I don't know, we'll just see.
07:08 Last one from me.
07:10 When you've spoken to us in the past and you've talked about wanting to fight Jon Jones one day,
07:14 back then you said you weren't ready.
07:16 Do you think you're ready now?
07:18 Yes.
07:19 Perfect, thank you.
07:20 Just to go off the back of that, Jon Jones is going to be fighting Stipe Miocic.
07:25 What do you think about that matchup?
07:27 How do you think it goes down?
07:29 I think it's interesting.
07:31 I think it's difficult to pick a winner really, because Stipe now is getting a little bit long in the tooth, I would say.
07:44 He's got a lot of miles on the clock and he hasn't fought for like two or three years now, and that's going to be difficult.
07:52 Oscar, can you move your head please?
07:54 I can't see the lady behind you, thank you.
07:57 He's just getting his head in the way, he's very rude.
08:00 I think it's difficult to know where Stipe is at at this point, whereas Jon Jones, we know exactly where he's at, he's just had a great performance.
08:09 It's heavyweight MMA, you can never say exactly what's going to happen at obviously the highest level, but I would say that Jon Jones has the edge definitely.
08:19 Do you see Jon Jones sticking around for much longer after that fight?
08:23 I hope so, that's my dream fight.
08:26 My goal in the future moving forward is not only to win, but I want to excite Jon Jones.
08:32 I want him to look at me and think, I keep saying it in interviews and stuff, but at this point he probably doesn't know who I am.
08:38 He probably doesn't, and that's fine.
08:40 But I want him to watch me fight in the next few fights and think, I need to stick around for this guy, this guy deserves...
08:47 I want him to look at me and think, I need to test myself against this guy and be excited about guys like me coming through and want to take that challenge.
08:56 How do you see yourself matching up with Jon Jones?
08:58 Pretty good, pretty good.
09:00 Tom, when you're doing a job that you love to do, it's an amazing thing, it's an amazing feeling,
09:10 but when that opportunity is taken away from you, whether it be through injury or other things, it can be a really difficult thing for your mental health.
09:17 How did you find this last year in terms of mentally not being able to do that job that you love to do?
09:24 I found it pretty difficult, to be honest.
09:27 After a couple of months I was alright, maybe less.
09:30 The toughest bit was not being able to walk for me.
09:33 And like you say, at first I was like, I didn't know how long I was going to be out for.
09:39 It's alright, even losing a fight, say I got knocked out or I lost a points decision or whatever,
09:44 you know that in three months you're going to get another crack at it.
09:47 Whereas with me it was like, I didn't know when I was going to be able to train again,
09:51 didn't know when I was going to be able to fight again.
09:54 It was a tough time, mentally it's a really tough thing to suffer an injury in front of millions of people and be sat at home on your own, unable to walk, that's quite tough.
10:03 Was there anything that was a springboard for you to start feeling better about it,
10:09 or was it simply once your body started healing, your mind started feeling better?
10:12 Once I was able to start the rehab process and stuff, I was alright,
10:16 because I literally treated it like a training camp, getting my knee right.
10:21 My physio would always give me two-week goals, so it would always be like, in two weeks you need to be doing this.
10:27 So it always gave me something to look forward to.
10:30 I really had great people around me to help me get back to where I am,
10:35 and I really kept everything good in terms of what I was putting in my body, the rest I was taking.
10:42 I think you can tell from my physique now that I didn't just get fat over the time that I was away,
10:48 I took everything really serious, I probably took the rehab process more seriously than I've taken any training camp, and I'm not even joking.
10:56 I put all good stuff in my body, took the right rest, hypnotherapy, I did everything to get back better than when I left.
11:03 Thanks very much, mate. Best of luck.
11:05 I know you said that you don't want to speak about the knee injury too much, and you're kind of sick of speaking about it,
11:14 but you're already known as being one of the most athletic fighters across any weight class.
11:20 Do you think that there's going to be a bit of a surprise from the people to see how different you look post-surgery?
11:25 Yeah. A lot of people, well the close people to me know that I was getting through these training camps and fights with one leg,
11:35 and that's not over-exaggerating. So I think me with two legs definitely has a lot more to offer than me with one leg.
11:44 So I think it will surprise a few people the way I move around the octagon on Saturday.
11:49 Does that obviously include your kicking game? I'm guessing that's something that's evolved over the...
11:55 Yeah, not just kicking though, there's all kinds of stuff that there's certain movements I couldn't do, I couldn't grapple for too long.
12:00 I was barely grappling at all before. I would be on my knees for half an hour and I'd have to stop training because my knee would be swollen.
12:07 So that's gone, and I've done some great, great training with great heavyweights for the full camp.
12:15 It's not been light, we've had the odd heavyweight... Every single day mate I've got heavyweights to train with,
12:19 which is a pretty rare thing, so I'm really happy about that and how my body feels responding to that as well.
12:24 I know you mentioned it there about the physio and how seriously you took that.
12:28 You mentioned that during that time you were asking your physio to set you goals for you to hit.
12:35 How important do you think that was to do that during the recovery?
12:40 Me personally, I need a goal, otherwise I'm just treading water, it's just boring.
12:45 That's when I do start getting a bit down in the dumps, when I'm just stuck doing nothing, aimlessly going through life,
12:54 I don't really like that stuff, I need something to work towards, so it's very important for me.
12:59 Thank you.
13:00 Thanks mate.
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