‘I’m Doing A Bisping!’

Aspinall will step in on two-weeks notice to fight Sergei Pavlovich for the interim heavyweight title on November 11th after Jon Jones suffered an injury.

The UFC injury bug has struck again.

In the latest big hit to a rapidly upcoming card, Jon Jones is out of his heavyweight title fight against Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 in New York City. Stipe will come off the card as well. Stepping in to replace them will be Tom Aspinall vs. Sergei Pavlovich for an interim heavyweight belt.

In a new interview with The Mac Life, Aspinall detailed how the bout came together and when he found out Jones had torn his pectoral muscle in training.

“I got it confirmed about three hours ago,” Aspinall said. “So it’s now about 7am UK time, I found out at like 4am. Got the ol’ middle of the night phone call and they were like ‘Oh, sorry, take some sleep.’ I’m like ‘How the f— am I supposed to sleep, you just told me I’m fighting for the heavyweight title! I can’t just go back to sleep.’ So yeah, I’ve been up since four.”

The initial call to get ready came on Tuesday (October 24th, 2023).

“The highest up people in the UFC never call, so he called me, I was like ‘What’s going on?’ and he said ‘Are you healthy?’ That’s the first thing he asked, he was like ‘Are you healthy.’ ‘Yeah, I’m healthy. Why, what’s going on?’ ‘There’s some crazy s— going on with this New York card. Are you ready to fight in two weeks?’ And I said ‘I can be, if you want me to be ready, I’ll be ready in two weeks.’ He said ‘Well, I’ll just have to let you know tomorrow.’ So obviously I was waiting … And then just woke me up with a call that it’s all going ahead.”

Aspinall didn’t sound bothered that he’d be fighting Pavlovich instead of Miocic.

“I weren’t too bothered, they’re all tough fights aren’t they?” he said. “I think that Pavlovich is the most dangerous, to be honest. I think he’s the most dangerous guy in the UFC. I think it’s f—ing the most dangerous situation you could have. Fighting the most dangerous guy in the UFC on two weeks notice. But I’m willing to put it all on the line, this is my absolute dream and I’m doing a Bisping, aren’t I? Bisping did it on two weeks notice and won against Rockhold so why can’t I do it?”

“The champion’s unavailable for a year, so yeah, I’m the champ until the champ comes back, when I win,” he said. “And then I’ll freaking beat the champ as well if he wants it, you know what I mean? It doesn’t really concern me, I’m not too bothered about interim belts or non-interim belts and all that s—. I’m just happy I got a fight because I’m healthy, I’m good to go, I really didn’t want to wait til next year because I’m in the gym.”

“I’m coming off a year break because I did my knee so while I’m healthy I want to take advantage of it, so I’m just really happy I get to fight anyone, and with it being for an interim belt, that’s even better.”

Now it’s time to put in as much work as possible headed into New York City. Aspinall said he’s been training, but not at camp intensity.

“I’m gonna have to train three, four times a day now going forward,” he said. It’s going to have to be the most focused two weeks of my life. So I’m going to sack all that off and just go full. … I’ve done some really good training as it is, I’ve not been in camp as such but I’ve got some good training under my belt. So I’m way ahead on the two-week camp.”

UFC 295 goes down on November 11th from Madison Square Garden. The new main event is Jiri Prochazka vs. Alex Pereira for the vacant light heavyweight title, with Tom Aspinall vs. Sergei Pavlovich sitting in the co-main slot.