Ahead of his UFC 304 title defense against Curtis Blaydes on July 27, Tom Aspinall is leaving no stone unturned as he seeks retribution for his 2022 loss to the heavyweight wrestler.
Back in July 2022, Tom Aspinall headlined the o2 in London for the second time, when he took on Curtis Blaydes in a big fight at the top of the heavyweight division.
Devastatingly, within the first 15 seconds of the fight, Aspinall suffered a fight-ending knee injury and was put out of action for a year.
The 31-year-old returned with an emphatic win over Marcin Tybura, again in London, and then went on to beat Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 this past November, winning the interim title.
Tom Aspinall reveals wild traditional Traveller method he has adopted for UFC 304
Although the Atherton native is fulfilling a dream of his to fight in front of a sold-out crowd in Manchester, England, he has to do so at around 4 am.
Because the promotion was originally anticipating the July 27 PPV to take place in Salt Lake City, Utah, they already scheduled the time with their broadcasters.
UFC welterweight champion, Leon Edwards, takes on Belal Muhammad in the main event, and he has consulted a sleep specialist to help prepare for his fight, and that is something Aspinall has consulted ‘Rocky’ about.
Not only that, but the 31-year-old heavyweight is also revisiting his family roots and has been implementing a wild traditional Gypsy method ahead of his big fight.
“You ever seen the documentary, knuckle?” Aspinall asked Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour.
The film Knuckle was released in 2011, and it dives into the world of Irish Traveller bare-knuckle boxing. Featured in the film is well-known bare-knuckle boxer, ‘Big’ Joe Joyce. During the documentary, Joyce could be seen soaking his knuckles in petrol to harden them.
“I wanted to resort back to a bit of Gypsy heritage that I’ve got so I thought, right, what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna make a little ring out of hay bales.
“When it gets to about 4 am, I get my alarm on, I go outside do a bit of shadow boxing in the hay bales and I do the old Traveller method of dipping your knuckles in petrol for about 20 minutes as the suns coming up, and that hardens your knuckles,” Aspinall stated.
Tom Aspinall confesses he has ‘some of the hardest knuckles in the UFC’
As well as his own heritage, Aspinall is close to the Fury family and has trained with heavyweight boxer, Tyson Fury and his family, for several years.
Historically, ‘The Gypsy King’ has also admitted that dipping his hands in petrol is a traditional method he implements as part of his fight preparation.
After partaking in the traditional method, Aspinall now believes he has some of the hardest knuckles in the UFC, which he is hoping will only make him even more dangerous.
“These are some of the hardest knuckles in the UFC right here, right now, they’re like rocks,” Aspinall stated.
The 31-year-old will be hoping that his ‘rock’ like knuckles score him another quick knockout so that he can potentially excite undisputed champion, Jon Jones, into sticking around after his rumored title fight against Stipe Miocic.