Tom Aspinall recently made history by becoming the third UK-born UFC champion in the world. The current interim heavyweight champion defeated a dangerous Sergei Pavlovich via KO at UFC 295. Furthermore, Aspinall and Pavlovich were not originally scheduled to fight and were replacing an injured Jon Jones. Now, Tom is showing some serious interest in a boxing match if the UFC doesn’t let him fight Jones or Stipe Miocic.
The British fighter claimed that he was open to the idea of boxing in the early half of 2024. While Jon Jones is injured for a long duration, Aspinall is calling for a fight against Stipe Miocic. However, Dana White and the UFC are more interested in the legacy fight between Jon Jones and Stipe once the former has recovered from his injuries.
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During an interview with Fight Disciples, Tom Aspinall claimed that he wants to stay active. When he was asked about a potential boxing match, he responded by saying, “Let’s do it.” “Absolutely I’ll do that if I can get that past the UFC,” said Aspinall. Furthermore, Tom said that he already had to take a year off due to his injury and wants to be active now.
He claimed that he did not want to wait for Jon Jones to recover so he’ll either fight another contender or look for a boxing match. Furthermore, MMA fans had some amazing reactions on this topic. “Go and box Derrick Lewis,” said one of the Instagram users.
🚨| Tom Aspinall has said he’d be open to a boxing match early next year if the UFC do not let him fight Stipe Miocic or Jon Jones.
He says he’s fit and wants to stay active so if he cannot be active in MMA then he’d be down to box.
[per @FightDisciples] #UFC295 #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/Ff3ncot2Rp
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) November 22, 2023
Furthermore, one UFC fan commented, “Aspinall vs. Ngannou” which will be a very interesting match. “Bro thinks he has a choice,” said another Instagram user. Finally, a UFC fan decided to claim that Tom is “not a draw” when it comes to PPV sales. It looks like Tom wants to follow in Francis Ngannou’s footsteps.
Tom Aspinall addresses the Nina Drama controversy
During the media promotion for UFC 295, Tom Aspinall did an interview with a popular internet personality, Nina Marie Daniele (Nina Drama). However, this interview took a wrong turn when Aspinall decided to ask a very unexpected question to Nina. Tom asked her if she had ever been “f**gered by an MMA fighter before.”
Furthermore, Nina looked visibly uncomfortable because of the question and responded with a no. However, Aspinall again pressed forward and asked, “What would it take?” While Nina maintained her composure, Aspinall received a lot of backlash on the internet.
This was the craziest question any UFC fighter has ever asked me LOL.
Full interview with Tom Aspinall on my YT channel: NinaDrama pic.twitter.com/AFlx5NU0ma
— Nina-Marie Daniele (@ninamdrama) November 17, 2023
Nina Marie Daniele decided to defend Tom by stating that she was not by his question at all. Furthermore, during his recent appearance on Fight Disciples, Tom Aspinall finally responded to this controversy.
“If you see a 10-second clip of that it looks bad…But me and Nina know one another…I know her sense of humor, she knows my sense of humor,” said Aspinall. Furthermore, he claimed that for the major part of the interview, Nina was asking him a lot of vulgar questions.
They asked Tom Aspinall about the finger question LOL @FightDisciples @AspinallMMA pic.twitter.com/lQcI0YxFjS
— Nina-Marie Daniele (@ninamdrama) November 23, 2023
Furthermore, Tom claimed that he was referring to one of the random questions that Nina had asked on her Instagram stories. “She gets all these kinds of mad questions…So I thought I’d throw a weird one in there,” said the interim UFC heavyweight champion.
In conclusion, Aspinall believes that it’s justified to ask a weird question back since she was asking him a lot of weird questions. Hopefully, Tom can leave this controversy behind and focus on his future.