{"id":297047,"date":"2023-11-14T12:24:35","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T12:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/?p=297047"},"modified":"2023-11-14T12:24:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T12:24:35","slug":"tom-aspinall-reveals-he-almost-had-to-pull-out-of-ufc-295-title-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-he-almost-had-to-pull-out-of-ufc-295-title-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Aspinall reveals he almost had to PULL OUT of UFC 295 title win"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tom Aspinall has revealed how close a freak back injury came to derailing his UFC 295 dream.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The British superstar claimed the interim heavyweight title by knocking out fearsome Russian Sergei Pavlovich in the co-main event of UFC 295 in New York on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But 10 days before his historic victory, a back injury meant he could not train and event made him consider pulling out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘I just wanted to get one good spar under my belt before we basically leave and travel to the US,’ he told the MMA Hour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘This was in the fourth round of sparring. Never experienced anything like it before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tom Aspinall produced a stunning KO to defeat Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Aspinall revealed he almost had to pull out of the fight having injured himself in training<\/p>\n
‘I just had a crazy back spasm, and my back just seized up. Nothing really even happened, and my back just stiffened up really badly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘I was basically unable to work out from that point onward. ‘It did get a little better, and luckily, my team was amazing and just shifted everything around so I could get some really good treatment,’ he said. ‘For a couple of days there, I just like, ‘s***, what am I going to do?’<\/p>\n
‘I’ve accepted the fight, the world knows about the fight now, and I can’t move,’ he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘We got stuff working, but seriously, nearly the worst-case scenario out there. No training camp, and then the small training camp that we did within the two weeks, I couldn’t really participate in most of the stuff I was doing, anyway.<\/p>\n
‘So yeah, it was wild. It was absolutely crazy. I didn’t have a visa. I had to do a million phones with the visa thing, the travel, and go to London a couple of times, which is the opposite side of the country from where I live. So it was absolutely crazy.<\/p>\n
‘It was just some freak thing that went on for a week,’ he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘It was really, really weird. It’s not like an ongoing injury. Everything’s fine. But it was just like my back seized up. A lot of anxiety over the last couple of weeks, to be honest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘But I’ve been doing a lot of, I don’t want to say soul-searching, I’ve been doing a lot of knowing where I’m at, and finding what I’m like as a person.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The British star’s preparation was far from ideal but he managed to get the job done\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Ultimately, this is what draws me to this sport is, I want to find out what I’m like as a person. What is Tom like when s*** goes south?\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘And a lot of stuff has been going south for me in this buildup, a lot of obstacles are coming my way. But as I kept saying in the pre-fight interviews, I know one thing for sure, I’m definitely not going to win the fight by watching it on TV.’<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen when Aspinall will be in action again, with Jon Jones out for the long term with an injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He wants to fight on the UFC 300 card next spring, in what will no doubt be packed to the gills with quality match-ups for the historic event.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n