It’s been 15 months since UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall last stepped foot inside the octagon.
After winning the interim championship at UFC 295 and defending it at UFC 304, Aspinall was sidelined waiting for then-champion Jon Jones to accept a title unification bout. Any hope of the match happening ended when Jones retired in June.
With a potential fight against Jones evaporated, Aspinall is free to fight, and he wants to often. Admittedly, the situation was frustrating, but he’s done talking about Jon Jones.
“(I was most frustrated) when I wasn’t really allowed to fight anybody. That’s all. I just wanted to fight,” Aspinall told SHAK MMA.. “I’m over it. Definitely over it.”
The 32 year-old Brit is slated to face former interim heavyweight titleholder Ciryl Gane in the UFC 321 main event on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. Win or lose, Aspinall plans to compete as often as UFC matchmakers will book him.
“I just want to fight. I want to be as active as possible. I want to fight as frequently as I possibly can,” he said. “I don’t know how that’s going to look because you never know what life’s going to throw your way, but I just want to get back to what I do and what I do is fighting people.”
“Three fights in the next 12 months sounds good.”
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