Tom Aspinall defends his interim heavyweight title against Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in Manchester this weekend
Tom Aspinall has plotted his route to the top surrounded by shovels and spades.
Not for him the questionable gadgets and gizmos which promise marginal gains at eye-watering prices. Aspinall has trained with dad Andy since the UFC interim heavyweight champion was eight years old. And not even defending his title on home soil has convinced the 31-year-old to abandon the father-and-son team’s back-to-basic methods.
Instead, after shedding blood, sweat and tears in the gym, the pair have reconvened in Aspinall Sr’s garage for the most rudimentary of tactical debriefs. “We train there all the time. It’s really small so it’s not somewhere we’ve trained really hard, it’s more for tactics,” he said.
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“Half of it is an actual garage so it’s got spades, a lawnmower and bikes knocking around; the other half has mats on the floor and mats on the walls and there are some weights. It’s quite small so you can’t spar there or anything, it’s very basic. “I’ll get footage of my sparring and my dad will be like, ‘Let me show this in the garage for 10 minutes’ and we’ll go over the sparring and he’ll tell me what I’m doing wrong.
“We’re not putting in killer sessions or anything but over the years I’ve probably trained in that garage more than I’ve trained anywhere else. “He shows me what I should have done, he demonstrates it and makes me practise it on him. “We speak every day about techniques and game plans; we’ve spoken about it every day for the last 25 years. “As I get older I understand him more and how he works. It’s brilliant, I love it and I wouldn’t do it without my dad.”
Interim heavyweight champion Aspinall will take on Curtis Blaydes in the early hours of Sunday morning after UFC bosses decided to hold the event at US prime time. But even that inconvenience won’t stop him realising a dream some 20 years in the making. “Every time it’s been in Manchester I’ve been there, sat in the nosebleeds so it’s nice to be the one in the octagon competing this time,” he added.
“All I could think about for months was going to watch the fights in Manchester, it was absolutely massive. I was inspired by all the fighters so if there’s some 14 or 15-year-old kid watching me saying that’s what I want to be like, that’s amazing. If I can do that for one kid that’s incredible.”
