British MMA has a new star! – UFC heavyweight Tom Aspinall is quickly becoming one of the sport’s most exciting prospects.
READ MORE: UFC fighter Rafael Alves cries on scales as he misses weight by record amount
Aspinall, 27, broke onto the fighting scene through UK promotions BAMMA and Cage Warriors.
After finishing four out of six fights across the two promotions, Aspinall received the call to compete in Dana White’s illustrious UFC.
Making his debut last year, Aspinall has gone on to claim victories over Jake Collier and Alan Baudot in his first two heavyweight bouts.
The 27-year-old Englishman is set for a return to action later this weekend where he will face-off against the experienced Andrei Arlovski on the UFC’s latest Fight Night (Blaydes vs Lewis).
The impressive heavyweight is widely regarded as one of the promotion’s most talented fighters.
Despite his huge frame, Aspinall showcases superb footwork which is more reminiscent of a middleweight striker.
Speaking in a recent interview with TalkSPORT, Aspinall has spoken with ambition about the prospect of facing pound-for-pound great Jon Jones.
After recently moving up to the heavyweight division, Jones is scheduled to fight for the title against the winner of Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou, later this year.
“He’s [Jones] cleared out the light-heavyweight division hasn’t he, so maybe he is looking for other challenges?”, Apsinall said.
“I’m interested to see how he looks with all that extra weight on him because a lot of these light-heavyweights think they can come up and just think ‘oh these guys are slow and they’re not as skilful’.
“But when you’re carrying that extra weight it makes a big difference as well, so I am looking forward to seeing how he looks at heavyweight. I’d be very interested in that.”
Going on to address how he sees his path glory playing out, the 27-year-old said: “I think it has gone as planned, to be honest.
“I think it is perfect because I’ve had two short fights and no one has seen anything close to what I can do yet so I’m still a little bit of a mystery to everyone.
“So that’s nice and the more quick fights I can have, the better really because that means it is going to take even longer for these guys to even start to figure me out.
“I’ve got a lack of experience to most fighters in general because I have not really had a lot of time in the cage at all.
“But I’ve been doing sparring and martial arts as a high level for a long time, but sparring and fighting is different.
“That’s why I say I’m trying to take my time and do it slowly rather than getting rushed through this thing so I’m just going to pick my experience up when it comes really.”