Tom Aspinall’s unexpected knee injury kept him out for over a year.
Before becoming the UFC champion, after Jon Jones retired and vacated the title belt, Aspinall suffered a nasty ACL injury during the first round of his fight with Curtis Blaydes in London.
The injury would not see him return to action until July of the next year, when he knocked out Marcin Tybura in the opening round to bounce back on his trail to the heavyweight title.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Now he has already avenged the fight with Blaydes in quick fashion and will be defending his newly anointed heavyweight crown in Abu Dhabi against Ciryl Gane.
Tom Aspinall’s father speaks on the warm-up before the 2022 knee injury
While the fighter himself did not seem to have an inkling about any problems with his leg prior to his 2022 clash, his father had noticed something in the warm-up.
Andy Aspinall, who is the full-time trainer of his son, spoke in a video to the MMA star’s YouTube channel about what he’d seen before the British fighter stepped into the Octagon.
In the clip, he said: “He kind of ran out. So I thought, is there something a bit different? Whether his knee was bothered.
“The fighters say I feel great. You don’t know if they really do feel great. The weaker the fight, you don’t know if they are masking a bit of an injury.”
“I can only say what’s conveyed to me from him, and he always seemed the same. But in the warm-up, that didn’t seem right. Just everything seemed a little bit off, but it proved to be the case.”
The damage to the leg was so severe that the 32-year-old was not able to walk properly and admitted in the build-up to his return fight that he had some dark days.
Tom Aspinall’s sparring partner reveals what it’s like to train with the UFC heavyweight champion
As he was taken by surprise by the retirement of Jones coming sooner than expected, the fight against the Frenchman was not his preferred option.
But he is preparing to put on a performance befitting of a champion, with a promise to make the division active again.
Leigh’s own has now begun training camp for his matchup with Gane in October and is already looking good on the pads and the mat.
His training partner, Modestas Bukauskas, gave some insight into what it was like being around the champion in camp.
Bukauskas said: “I literally get so inspired by him daily just by the way that he conducts himself on the mats, outside the mats, and I’m trying to take a load of pages out of his book in terms of how to approach my life and my career.
“But if we’re talking about in the training room, he’s an absolute savage. The speed, the athleticism, the timing, it’s just on a whole other level. I don’t see any other heavyweight move like that.
“So, he’s going to be reigning and defending his heavyweight world championship for many years to come.”
‘The Honey Badger’ has not fought since defeating Blaydes in the rematch last year.
However, with a new fight pencilled in and a new year on the horizon, the Northerner is ready to become one of the best champions in the company.