Tom Aspinall has dealt with being sidelined before. But this time, there’s no timetable for when he might fight again.
July 23, 2022. The date of Aspinall’s lone UFC defeat. Fifteen seconds into a headlining bout with Curtis Blaydes in London, Aspinall’s knee gives out. The injury slows Aspinall’s meteoric rise up the ranks and it isn’t until almost exactly one year later when he makes a successful return with a 73-second knockout of Marcin Tybura. One fight later, Aspinall beats Sergei Pavlovich even faster to capture an interim title.
Since then, Aspinall has dutifully defended his title once, successfully avenging his loss to Blaydes this past July, and made it clear he wants to fight undisputed champion Jon Jones. The former light heavyweight king defeated Ciryl Gane to capture a vacant heavyweight title following Francis Ngannou’s UFC departure, and then defended his belt against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309, a year after a Jones injury forced a postponement of their original booking.
Aspinall spoke to Demetrious Johnson on the MightyCast, about how this latest layoff compares to his one-year recovery from injury.
“I had the big injury and then I was at a bit of a crossroads really, like I’d made a little bit of money then, I’d made enough to buy a house and stuff, and then it was like, do I want to carry on with this thing?” Aspinall said. “It was obviously devastating to get injured in front of everybody and stuff. But anyway, it was a tough time for me. Came back, took me a year with the rehab with the knee and everything… the physiotherapy and all that kind of stuff. So it was a tough couple of months mentally, but the once I started working towards getting back, I’d see the doctor, I’d see the physio, they’d be like, ‘In two weeks, this is what I want you doing in the gym. I want you squatting down to 90 degrees. I want you to be able to jump on this box. I want you to be able to run a mile and then you can start boxing, you can do this, that.’ I always had a little goal to work towards.
“So after a couple of months of being sat on the couch, as soon as I could get in the gym and start working towards different things, it was great and I felt good, I was like, ‘I definitely want to come back. Now I’m going to go, I don’t have any injuries, I’m going to win the heavyweight championship, I’m going to become this legend, I’m going to knock everybody out’ and all that stuff, I felt great about it. And I was on my recovery path to getting back.”
As Aspinall recovered from injuries to his MCL and meniscus, he knew it would be a long road back, but that road was at least lined with plenty of tangible benchmarks. His wait for Jones has dragged on for over a year, with the assumption that the undisputed champion would welcome a unification bout with the interim champion.
That has not been the case.
“Now, I’ve been almost a year inactive with no prospects of anything apart from wait,” Aspinall said. “So now it’s actually a bit more of a tricky time for me mentally than it was then. Even people then were like, ‘Are you OK? How are you dealing with coming back?’ and stuff like that. I was like, yeah, I’m good. I’ve got this to look forward to, the doctor said I’ve got to do this in two weeks or in two months I can start grappling. I constantly had little goals to work towards. Whereas now it’s just like, ‘Just be ready and we’ll just let you know.’
“It’s kind of difficult mentally, but this is the fight against Jon Jones. The fight is another thing, this is the tricky bit where I really have to stay switched on, stay motivated, and I’m trying my best. It’s tough sometimes.”
One thing Aspinall has long maintained is he doesn’t blame Jones if his reluctance to compete again is simply a matter of money, especially with the longtime light heavyweight great likely only having a few fights left in his career.
He hopes that however the situation is resolved, it ends with the undisputed heavyweight belt around his waist.
“I honestly can see Jon’s point of view,” Aspinall said. “I get it. I get it. It’s just about the title for me. I just want the title, that’s it. Nothing else really matters. So I get it completely, get his point of view, get what everybody’s saying, completely understand. I just want to prove I’m the best, that’s all.”
