UFC star Tom Aspinall ready for the biggest fight of his career

Wigan Today

Tom Aspinall can't wait to face Sergei Pavlovich for the UFC's interim heavyweight title.

Transcript

00:00 Wigan's played a pretty decent part of your journey, hasn't it?

00:04 - Yeah, we've been coming here for a while, to be honest.

00:07 The cage that they've got, the facility here is great.

00:10 I have no idea why they've got it.

00:11 I've asked Sean Wayne, who's obviously the England manager now,

00:14 who used to be the Wigan manager.

00:15 Like, why is this really good cage actually here?

00:18 And he's like, I don't know.

00:19 But it's great for us, you know what I mean?

00:20 Big cage, springy, everything's good about it.

00:24 So that's why we use it, it's great facilities.

00:25 - And you've been obviously in training in Wigan before

00:27 and the Mike Grundy era and stuff.

00:29 You go back a long way with the town.

00:31 - Yeah, of course.

00:32 Good place to live, I reckon.

00:34 I like it.

00:36 - Yeah, and obviously we've got Mike Grundy,

00:38 been there in the past, Mohamed Mokaev.

00:40 I mean, it's a decent hotbed of talent all of a sudden,

00:43 isn't it, with yourself?

00:44 - Yeah, definitely.

00:45 And Mohamed's looking great.

00:46 Like, I just watched his fight last week.

00:49 I've known Mohamed since he was 12 years old.

00:50 He's the guy who's gonna be an absolute superstar.

00:53 He's gonna go out there and win the flyweight title.

00:55 And yeah, he's definitely a future champion himself as well.

00:57 - And you're obviously, you know, proud of your roots,

00:59 Northwest.

00:59 I mean, does that help keep you grounded

01:01 in this crazy world of UFC?

01:03 - I don't know.

01:05 I don't know what keeps me grounded.

01:06 I just live the same life as I did

01:07 before I was in the UFC, do you know what I mean?

01:09 I think to be a top level athlete

01:12 or just top level at anything,

01:13 you have to have a strong routine, in my opinion.

01:15 And I just do the same stuff as I did

01:18 way before I was successful, do you know what I mean?

01:20 I just train, sleep, train, spend time with my children.

01:25 That's it.

01:25 I don't do anything spectacular, do you know what I mean?

01:27 I just have a good routine

01:28 and it works for me and I just stick with that.

01:30 - You're obviously flying the flag for the region

01:32 and the UK.

01:33 Do you take that into the ring with you?

01:34 Are you conscious of this?

01:36 - Not so much, to be honest, not so much.

01:39 I think this is a very individual sport.

01:41 I think that you need to do what you need to do to win.

01:46 And I think it's a pretty selfish sport

01:49 and you have to be quite selfish.

01:50 So I don't really think about anybody else, to be honest.

01:52 I just think about what I'm doing.

01:53 - Yeah.

01:54 And obviously you've been here a few times.

01:55 Do you keep in touch with the lads?

01:56 Are you getting messages ahead of fight night?

01:58 - Yeah, I get messages off a lot of people,

02:00 to be honest with you.

02:01 I get great support, great support from local people.

02:04 And I really appreciate it,

02:06 whether it's like famous people, sports people, whatever,

02:08 or just someone on the street, it doesn't really matter.

02:10 Like support, support, and I appreciate it from everyone.

02:12 - And what would it mean to bring the belt back here?

02:14 I mean, it's your trick.

02:15 - That would be something.

02:16 I have thought about it, definitely.

02:18 That'd be good.

02:19 I've dreamt so much about going back to the airport

02:21 and people being at the airport when I've got the belt.

02:23 I think that's gonna happen in a couple of weeks time.

02:26 - And Madison Square Garden as well, you mentioned.

02:27 I mean, it's the dream for you, isn't it?

02:29 It's the one place you wanna go.

02:30 - Absolutely prestigious place for combat sports.

02:34 Not just combat sports, just any sports and any performer

02:37 to be able to perform at Madison Square Garden is massive.

02:39 So yeah, looking forward to that massively.

02:42 But also, all that aside, I've got a massive fight.

02:46 So mainly I'm just focusing on that.

02:47 - And obviously the big thing

02:48 is it's two and a half weeks notice,

02:49 but you're ready, you're confident, you're full of belief.

02:52 - Yeah.

02:53 I mean, I'm always training anyway.

02:56 Ideally, I would have liked eight weeks to prepare

02:58 or 10 weeks.

02:59 But what can you do?

03:02 When opportunity knocks, you gotta answer it sometimes

03:04 and I'm really happy with it either way.

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