Despite another impressive first round victory over Alexander Volkov at the UFC Fight Night 204 event recently that accelerated his hype train, Tom Aspinwall is remaining grounded and has insisted that others deserve to fighting for the heavyweight title before him.
“That’s not really something that I think about,” Aspinall said to CBS Sports. “I’m not interested in that, really. I think there are other people that deserve it more, like Stipe (Miocic) or Jon Jones. There are definitely other people who deserve it more than me. I’ve only just broken into the top 10. I’m not looking at doing any of that stuff. Look at Ciryl Gane. He was this close to beating Ngannou. People like that guy deserve it way more than me.
“My time came basically because I couldn’t get any other fights in any other organizations. I would have loved more fights, the same as how I would have loved more fights before I fought someone like Volkov or someone like (Andrei) Arlovski or (Serghei) Spivak or all them kind of guys. I would have loved more experience before I fight them guys. I’m kind of a product of my own success, I guess. I’m struggling to get that experience against anybody else. To be honest, I was sure that someone like Volkov would give me them kind of rounds, but obviously that didn’t work out that way.”
Aspinall’s preferred next option was a fight with Tai Tuivasa, and despite the Aussie’ eyeing up a bout against Stipe Miocic instead, Aspinall is still up for it, though his priority is fighting in the UK again.
“I heard before that he was in talks with Stipe to get that match,” Aspinall said. “Then I heard from a couple of inside sources that fight is nowhere near close. The ball is in his court, but I want to fight in the U.K. Me and Tai in the U.K. would be unbelievable.
“I want to be the U.K. guy. I want to fight in the U.K. I don’t want to go on a card now and just be another guy on the card. Do you know what I mean? I want to be the U.K. darling. I want to be that guy.”
