Tom Aspinall’s manager Eddie Hearn has claimed that he intends to stop UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall from fighting again until the promotion pays him what he’s worth.
“It’s really interesting what’s happening in the UFC right now,” Hearn told Bloody Elbow. “There is a monumental change for the swing of the business. They’ve got to be careful, because at the end of the day, I’m not going to let Tom Aspinall fight for the kind of money that’s in his contract, to be involved in a fight against [Alex] Pereira or [Ciryl] Gane for literally one fiftieth of the revenue for that show. F*ck that! I won’t let him do it.
“It’s time those UFC fighters stop being mugs and start to understand that these people are taking advantage of them. They deserve better. They don’t mind paying these [boxers] all this money, but they won’t do it for the UFC fighters.”
While some are concerned that Aspinall may be getting caught up in the middle of an ongoing public feud and power struggle between Hearn and Dana White, the long-time boxing promotor is adamant that he’s doing what’s in his client’s best interests.
“I’m saying my advice to Tom Aspinall will be, ‘Don’t you dare take that fight for the money that’s in your contract. You are one of the biggest stars in UFC. That fight against Pereira or Gane is one of the biggest fights the UFC can make,’” Hearn said.
“I will tell you the number in time, if we get to that. UFC fans, everybody will be sick to their stomach about the money Tom Aspinall is supposed to get for that fight, for the revenue that exists for that fight. It’s not fair.
“We’re not trying to be unreasonable, but my advice to him is, ‘Mate, you don’t need them. You nearly lost your eyesight. You had four operations on your eyes, and you want to go back and fight for virtually nothing in this fight, in a rematch?’ He knows no better; he’s a fighter. Trust me when I say I know what I’m talking about, and it’s outrageous. And I will do everything I can to not allow it.”
Meanwhile, earlier this week Michael Bisping expressed doubts about Aspinall’s ongoing recovery from his eye injuries, questioning whether there’s more to the story about the length of time it’s taking for him to return to the Octagon.
“I’ve got to choose my words carefully here, but he just said he’s still not cleared to fight,” Bisping said on his ‘Believe You Me’ podcast. “But he’s been very vague with the details. Very vague with the details, you know? If I wasn’t cleared, because he’s got a YouTube channel, he posts content all the time, you’d talk about it. The procedures that he had, the operations, whatever they were. I had a surgery, it was a very, very serious surgery, it’s called scleral buckle, it’s gross what they do to the eyeball. I don’t what he had, but he hasn’t talked about that.
“I had that surgery, recovered, came back and had a fight in a shorter amount of time than what it’s taken this whole eye poke saga.”
It’s worth stressing here that Bisping was a unique case in this regard in that it’s widely known that he continued to fight on in the UFC even though he was effectively blind in one eye, and eventually after his fight career was over had to get a prosthetic eye.
Nevertheless, Bisping hints that he’s becoming suspicious that something’s not quite right with the whole situation.
“I don’t say it stinks,” Bisping said. “As a guy, I know Tom. We used to have a close relationship, we don’t talk these days. He was a great guy, but maybe, I don’t know, you look between the lines, there’s something f*cking weird going on.”
Bisping went on to admit that he questions Eddie Hearn’s motives when it comes to Aspinall’s future plans.
“Let’s just say—because there’s two things that are going to happen here—it’s either there’s some long, drawn-out dispute, Tom sits on the sidelines, he’s not fighting, or the UFC might just go, ‘You know what? Fine. Go on. Sod off,’” Bisping said. “[Alex] Pereira’s making, I hear $5 million for the White House fight, [Ilia] Topuria’s probably getting something similar, and when you’re going on a streak as an undefeated heavyweight champion of the world, you’re going to be on a large amount of money. So he’s leaving a lot of money there, and again, I’m not trying to talk shit about him, it’s just frustrating just seeing how this all plays out because, I might be wrong, I think Eddie’s kind of using him a bit here. But what’s he going to do? He ain’t going to go to another MMA promotion.”
“Eddie Hearn can compare it to the boxing world all day long and go, ‘Anthony Joshua’s getting $25 million.’ This is bullshit. They’re unicorns in the boxing world. They’re, like, the biggest names. It’s crazy. I just want to see Tom back in the octagon. He’s a nice guy. I wish him the best.”
