WATCH | Footage released of the moment Tom Aspinall injured his back ahead of UFC 295 interim title fight
Tom Aspinall revealed he injured his back just after accepting his short-notice UFC 295 interim heavyweight title fight against Sergei Pavlovich.
After Jon Jones tore his pec and his fight against Stipe Miocic was called off, the UFC booked Aspinall vs. Pavlovich to serve as the co-main event of UFC 295 for the interim heavyweight title. The fight was made on just over two weeks’ notice and during one of Aspinall’s first training sessions, he hurt his back.
Although in the lead-up to the fight he never mentioned it, after he got the first-round knockout, Tom Aspinall revealed post-fight about the back injury.
“I actually pulled my back and didn’t really train at all. So I injured it on the first week after I found out about the fight. I’ve not been able to train for, like, the last week and a half. I didn’t have any training camp. I had about, like, five days of training camp. I didn’t have a visa. I was unsure if I could get here. It was just the wildest two weeks ever. Everything was just going wrong,” Tom Aspinall said to Laura Sanko.
Even though Tom Aspinall did suffer an injury, he ended up fighting and got a first-round knockout to become the champ. Since winning, his gym, Aspinall BJJ released a video on Instagram showing the moment that the Brit got hurt.
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The injury was very odd as Tom Aspinall was just sparring then out of nowhere hunched over in pain. But Aspinall admitted there was a thought of pulling out but ended up fighting and got the win.
With the TKO win over Pavlovich, Aspinall is now the interim heavyweight champion. He’s currently 14-3 and is 7-1 in the UFC with his lone loss coming to Curtis Blaydes in a fight where he tore his ACL.
