Tom Aspinall is hoping to return to action with a win over Marcin Tybura this afternoon (Sat., July 22, 2023) at UFC London live on ESPN+ from inside The O2 Arena in London, England, and prove that he’s ready for the upper echelon of the UFC heavyweight division. This would include current division king and MMA legend, Jon Jones.
Despite injuring his knee against Curtis Blaydes nearly one year ago Apsinall remains one of the very best rising contenders in the sport today. The English fighter is 5-1 inside of the Octagon and easily one of the most well-rounded heavyweights to come along in recent memory. If he had captured a win over Blaydes in July 2022 then he may have fought for a UFC title already.
TAs of now, Aspinall is completely healed and ready to take over where he left off. But is he ready to compete against the likes of Jones?
“Yes,” said Aspinall at UFC London’s media day.
“That’s my dream fight,” he explained. “My goal in the future moving forward is not only to win [at UFC London], but I want to excite Jon Jones. Like, I want him to look at me and think — I keep saying it in interviews and stuff, but at this point he probably doesn’t know who I am. He probably doesn’t, and that’s fine. But I want him to watch me fight in the next few fights and think, ‘I need to stick around for this guy. This guy deserves [to fight me].’ I want him to look at me and think, ‘I need to test myself against this guy,’ and be excited about guys like me coming through and want to take that challenge.”
Jones is the arguably the greatest fighter in the history of the sport and a puzzle that fighters have been trying to solve for over a decade. A matchup with Aspinall would be fun, but Jones may be too much for the aspiring title challenger.
Luckily, Aspinall has time to prove his worth in his return and make Jones take notice. He’s confident in a potential matchup against “Bones,” but Aspinall understands he may need to show a little more inside of the cage.
“Of course, I want to fight Jon Jones,” Aspinall said of Jones during a recent interview with ESPN. “Every time I speak about it, people are like, ‘He doesn’t deserve to speak about Jon Jones,’ and I agree. Let me just say, I agree right now.
“But if I’m not trying to fight Jon Jones, what am I doing? I’m just wasting my time. I want to fight Jon Jones, and honestly, hand on heart, I think I can beat Jon Jones. Seriously, I do. I’ve not proved that I can do that, but I honestly believe I can.”
There’s only one way for Aspinall to regain momentum in the heavyweight division and line himself up for a shot at Jones and that’s to keep winning. Tybura isn’t a world beater, but if Aspinall can make easy work of him this weekend in London he should be back to fighting top 5 competition.
MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC London fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN+ preliminary card bouts at 12 p.m. ET, followed by the ESPN+ main card start time at 3 p.m. ET.
To check out the latest and greatest UFC London news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive here. For the updated and finalized “Aspinall vs. Tybura” fight card and ESPN+ lineup click here.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
