Tom Aspinall knows who he wants to fight next.
Aspinall won the UFC interim heavyweight championship in spectacular fashion late last year when he knocked Sergei Pavlovich out in the first round at UFC 295, making the British fighter one of the hottest commodities on the circuit.
Winning an interim title would generally lead to a fight against the champion, but Aspinall acknowledges that injured heavyweight title holder Jon Jones is "tied up" with Stipe Miocic for the time being, so the 30-year-old has named another fighter that he'd like to face in the near future — one that he has recent history with.
"[Curtis] Blaydes has said he wants to fight me and I've said 'ok, cool, let's do it'. That's it," Aspinall told OLBG.
"I'm just waiting at the minute. I'm just waiting for the call, I'm in the gym twice a day, and I'm en route to training as we speak. I'm ready to go whenever."
The men fought in July 2022, when Aspinall suffered a knee injury in the opening seconds that cost him the bout and forced him out of action for a full year. The way that fight went down still leaves a bad taste in Aspinall's mouth, and he's eager to face Blaydes again.
"I like Curtis Blaydes but professionally I want to beat him because he's got a win over me when I got injured," he said.
"I don't know if the right word is 'personal' but it is personal. But not in the way that I don't like him as a person, it's personal in a professional kind of way. I want to get that one back.”
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