Modestas Bukauskas is a part of a whole team of powerhouse athletes that train with the interim champion on a daily basis.
The UFC light heavyweight hasn’t just benefitted from a skill point of view when it comes to the work that he has done alongside Tom Aspinall.
It’s not always easy to get fights in the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions considering that they’re two of the three smallest talent pools on the current UFC roster and that can lead to some waiting.
Whilst Bukauskas has a return just around the corner on February 22 in Seattle, we’re still waiting on news about his training partner and what could be the biggest fight of the year.
Aspinall has made it clear in the past that he isn’t going to sit around and dwell on whether or not he will get the chance to fight Jon Jones or not and he’s been using this downtime wisely.
Modestas Bukauskas draws inspiration from the way that Tom Aspinall has kept his head down amidst Jon Jones drama
Tom Aspinall will have been asked countless times when he is fighting Jon Jones but his way of dealing with that has been to continue pushing forwards in the gym.
This is something that Modestas Bukauskas has been able to take inspiration from having had several long lay-offs without a fight booked throughout his career.
He told Bloody Elbow in a recent exclusive interview that seeing the way that Aspinall conducts himself whilst having the most talked about fight in MMA hanging over his head is a great source of motivation for his own career.
“The mentality of try to enjoy every day as it is and trying to live the pure life of an athlete. Tom literally embodies that whole pure mind, body and soul of being an athlete and trying to do everything to the nth degree, trying to take everything to the next level and trying to improve his skillset so yeah, I’ve definitely taken in a lot of lessons from him because he never wavers.
“He’s always training, even if the intensity is not quite so crazy, you’ve always go to try and learn, try and build… Tom, he knows hopefully at some point he’ll have something on the horizon so all he can do right now is make sure he’ll be ready for when that opportunity comes.”
Tom Aspinall went right back to work following his travels in New York
Things have been relatively quiet from the Tom Aspinall camp following the events of UFC 309 last November.
In the main event, Jon Jones successfully defended the heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic but the Madison Square Garden headliner didn’t dominate the discussion throughout fight week.
Instead, with Aspinall in attendance, a lot of the talk was about whether the interim champion will go on to fight the winner in a title unification bout down the line.
After making some noise during fight week through his sheer presence alone, the Brit returned home and went right back to work in order to potentially prepare for a fight that is right at the top of every MMA fans wish list.