Tom Aspinall thought about retiring following his knee injury at UFC London in July.
Aspinall was headlining UFC London for the second time of the year, this time against Curtis Blaydes in a massive fight. If Aspinall won, he would be right in the title picture at heavyweight but seconds into the fight, he fell to the ground and grabbed his knee in pain.
It was later revealed Aspinall tore his knee and after the injury, he admits he contemplated retirement.
“I seriously had to ask myself the question after the injury ‘is this what I want to keep doing?’ Getting hurt like that in front of all those people, it was tough mentally. I seriously had to sit on that for a week,” Aspinall said to OLBG. “Do I want to keep on doing this? I have other ways of making money. It’s not just fighting I have in my life. I could take the same energy and put it into something else. But ultimately I really, really want to do this sport more than I ever had before. So I had the conversation with myself for about a week after. And then I started telling myself I can definitely come back, change a few things, and now I think I’m going to be UFC heavyweight champion.”
After some thinking about it, Tom Aspinall ultimately decided to continue on with his rehab and continue to fight. As of right now, he does not have his not fight booked but isn’t ruling out a return at UFC 286 in London.
“My ego wants to go ‘stick me on the card I’m good to go’ but I need to think long term which I’ve not been doing and need to get everything right,” Aspinall said. “I’m not ruling it out (fighting at UFC London). At the minute it’s still like 14-15 weeks away. And at this point I’ve not done much heavy training. It’s just been rehab really. But can I get ready in 14 weeks? The answer is yes. Will I be ready to start a title run in 14 weeks, I don’t know. And if I don’t know – that’s not the answer I’m looking for. It’s highly unlikely but not a complete no at this point.”
Tom Aspinall is currently 12-3 as a pro and is 5-1 inside the UFC. Prior to the loss due to injury against Blaydes, he had a submission win over Alexander Volkov at UFC London in March in his first UFC main event.
Who would you like to see Tom Aspinall fight in his return?
