Tom Aspinall’s one win over an ex-UFC titleholder didn’t come easily.
Aspinall is gearing as much as enter the UFC Octagon for the primary time in 15 months — and for the primary time because the undisputed heavyweight king.
Having been elevated to that status after Dana White announced Jon Jones’ retirement this past summer, Aspinall will face a challenge from Ciryl Gane within the UFC 321 foremost event this Saturday.
Should the Englishman successfully defend the belt for the primary time against the previous interim champion, he could have added a second victory over an ex-UFC titleholder to his résumé over 4 years after first achieving the feat.
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Tom Aspinall fought through compromised vision to beat former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski
After Aspinall’s 45-second UFC debut win over Jake Collier and a rather longer knockout against Alan Baudot, the previous Cage Warriors fighter faced a step up in competition against former heavyweight king Andrei Arlovski.
The Manchester native showed his well-rounded arsenal by getting the job done on the bottom with a rear-naked choke submission. And to get to that time, Aspinall needed to fight through a problem along with his eyesight.
Chatting with Business Insider after the UFC Vegas 19 win, Aspinall revealed that an early punch from the heavyweight legend had caught him in a single eye and left him with blurred vision.
“I had an issue with my eye however it’s recovering,” Aspinall said. “Principally, I got punched in the attention early on. And it wasn’t, like, I couldn’t see…because I could see.
“But you already know once you put another person’s glasses on and it’s blurry? That’s what it was like in a single eye. So I could see, but I couldn’t judge how close he was or how far-off he was,” he added.
Although he ultimately got the job done, Aspinall believed things would have been rather a lot more comfortable without his compromised vision.
“I believe if I had two good eyes, I don’t think he would have been capable of hit me,” Aspinall suggested.
“And I’m not being cocky or anything. I believe my footwork was too quick for him. In order that’s one other experience. Fighting once I couldn’t really see that well.”
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Andrei Arlovski is the one man to take Tom Aspinall right into a second round within the UFC
While Arlovski was unable to halt Aspinall’s charge early on within the Englishman’s UFC profession, he did come rather a lot closer than simply about everyone.
By surviving the opening frame against the then-future champ, Arlovski stands because the only fighter to have forced Aspinall right into a second round on MMA’s biggest stage.
The Briton was previously taken into round two under the BAMMA banner by each Stuart Austin and Lukasz Parobiec, each of whom had their hands raised over Aspinall.
Gane will look to follow suit in Saturday’s foremost event. Ahead of UFC 321, Gane has vowed to take Aspinall into “deep waters” en path to taking the undisputed heavyweight gold from him.