Tom Aspinall Reveals Why He Was Frustrated About His UFC 304 Fight Ending in Round 1
Tom Aspinall voiced frustration after his UFC 304 bout ended in the first round, feeling he couldn't showcase his skills.
Tom Aspinall is annoyed because his fight with Curtis Blaydes did not last long enough! Aspinall defended his UFC interim heavyweight championship belt at UFC 304. Going up against Curtis Blaydes, several experts opined that the match would be tough for Aspinall to win. However, once the bout went live, the reality panned out to be quite different.
After the start of their fight, it was Curtis Blaydes who went on the offense. He landed a couple of solid punches on Aspinall that appeared to have bothered the interim champ a bit. But after the initial attacks, Aspinall composed himself, and in one swift motion, the English fighter unleashed two brutal punches that caught Blaydes completely off guard.
Unable to keep his balance, Curtis Blaydes fell to the ground as Aspinall teed off with a flurry of hammer fists. Well, while getting a finish under one minute would have ideally made any other fighter happy, Tom Aspinall wanted the fight to go beyond the second-round mark.
Speaking about his 1-minute victory, Aspinall mentioned that he felt annoyed as the match got over quicker than expected. While this initially sounded quite weird, Aspinall’s following statements revealed his motive behind such a bizarre wish. As a matter of fact, Tom Aspinall has the lowest ring time in UFC history, 2:02 minutes.
This has made fighters and coaches predict that Aspinall would fail to keep his tempo if a fight goes to the third or the fourth round. And this is the challenge that Aspinall wants to take.
Aspinall said, “See, I've got an issue with fighters and coaches always saying the obvious thing: 'Let's drag Tom into deep waters; let's see what he's like when he gets to the third and fourth rounds.' Great! Drag me there, then! But no one has been able to do that so far. You can mouth off as much as you want when there's a camera in your face, but let's see someone actually drag me into the third or fourth or even fifth round.”
Aspinall went on to say that he himself wants to see how he will perform if a fight is dragged till the fourth round. This will test his training method, which, according to Aspinall, is on a ‘different level.’ Meanwhile, having bulldozed Curtis Blaydes, Aspinall issued a warning to Jon Jones.
Speaking immediately after his UFC 304 victory, Tom Aspinall issued a strong statement to Jon Jones. Aspinall mentioned that he believes he is a better fighter than Jon Jones. In fact, Aspinall also oozed confidence, saying that if a fight happened between the two, Aspinall would easily beat the undisputed champion.
With Jon Jones unwilling to fight Aspinall for a long time, it will now be interesting to see how things pan out in the future.
ALSO READ: Jon Jones Responds to Tom Aspinall’s Callout After Quick Knockout Win at UFC 304