Tom Aspinall is leaving no stone unturned ahead of UFC 304.
The 31-year old will put his UFC Interim Heavyweight title on the line in a rematch against Curtis Blaydes when the UFC return to the UK on July 27. When the two first met, Aspinall suffered a freak knee injury just 15 seconds into the bout and with that, Aspinall was handed his first loss in the UFC.
The Brit joined Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour last night (July 15) and discussed the lengths he is going to in his preparations for the Blaydes bout, returning to his travelling lineage. He said:
“You ever seen the documentary, Knuckle? You familiar with that? It's a documentary about travellers, traveling communities in the UK and Ireland and there's a guy on there, big Joe Joyce, an old traveling legend. And Big Joe Joyce reveals a few gypsy methods for getting ready for a fight and I wanted to resort back to a bit of gypsy heritage that I've got.
“So I thought, right, what I want to do is, I'm going to make a little ring out of hay bales, when it gets to about 4 a.m, I’d get my alarm on, I go outside, do a bit shadowboxing in the hay bales, and then I do the old traveller method of dipping your knuckles in petrol for about 20 minutes as the sun is coming up and that hardens your knuckles.
“You need to watch the documentary Knuckle with the legendary man, the Joe Joyce and all the guys who do that shadowboxing and hay bales and taking it old school and dipping your knuckles in petrol.”
He continued:
“It's an old, traditional fighting man thing. Dip your knuckles in the petrol mate, get them rock hard and these are some of the hardest knuckles in the UFC."
There has been a lot made of the fact that although the show will take place in Manchester, the running times will be more suited to the American fan base, with Aspinall unlikely to compete until around 5am on Sunday morning. However, Aspinall is unphased at the idea of fighting in the early hours of the morning, believing that if athletes are as good as they say they are, they should be able to fight at the best of their ability at whatever time in the day.
“I'm just getting my body used to being alert, at like 4am. When it gets to fight week, if you can fight really well at 12:00, midnight, but you can't fight really well 4am, you weren't that good in the first place, in my opinion. You know what I mean? Like, there's plenty of times I've travelled across the world, fought in different time zones without even adjusting myself.
“And now I've had a full training camp at home, I'm right there ready to fight. If that's an excuse mate, you're not that good in the first place in my opinion.”
Further discussing the time issue, Aspinall revealed that he has never worried about the time issue before and believes if other athletes blame the time of the card as the reason behind sub par performances, they are simply using it as an excuse.
“Well, listen to this, this is something from my Dad. I spar at about 10 a.m. once a week, twice a week usually, on a weekday.
“I have never thought, it has never even crossed my mind to think like, ‘Right, I'm going to start sparring at midnight just to get my body ready for it.’ Never, never crossed my mind in like 30 plus fighters, however many fights I’ve had. All the times I've got on a plane and travelled somewhere, it’s never bothered me about the time difference.
“Why should it start now? But saying that, I am preparing myself for it. I am waking up, I am doing the shadow boxing, I am taking it very seriously, but what I'm trying to say is, if you're using that as an excuse, you can find better excuses than that. You know, you can find better excuses than a time difference.
“If you're a top level athlete, it shouldn't be an issue and it won't be an issue for me.”
Watch the full interview, below:
