{"id":232239,"date":"2025-10-22T10:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T10:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/232239\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T10:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T10:35:07","slug":"paul-craig-reveals-he-was-once-offered-heavyweight-fight-against-tom-aspinall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/232239\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Craig reveals he was once offered heavyweight fight against Tom Aspinall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former UFC star Paul Craig has revealed that he was once offered the chance to fight Tom Aspinall at heavyweight.<\/p>\n<p>For so many years, Paul Craig was a real fan favorite in the world of mixed martial arts. From stunning victories to amusing tidbits in interviews, the Scottish sensation certainly knows how to play to the crowd. Plus, he had one of the best weigh-in traditions ever seen in the UFC.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/paul-craig\/ufc-star-paul-craig-reveals-really-bad-eating-disorder-impacted-middleweight-performances\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC star Paul Craig reveals \u2018really bad eating disorder\u2019 impacted middleweight performances<\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, following his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/modestas-bukauskas\/ufc-paris-results-modestas-bukauskas-kos-paul-craig-video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">most recent loss<\/a>, Craig is now living life away from MMA following his retirement. He seems to be content with his decision but in a sport like this, you can never say never when it comes to a potential return.<\/p>\n<p>With that being said, Craig may not have a whole lot of trust in the UFC\u2019s matchmaking, especially after revealing that the light heavyweight regular was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DQEowgDCGmq\/?igsh=Z3NuaGV4bG93N2oy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">once offered<\/a> a clash with none other than Tom Aspinall.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Paul Craig was offered Tom Aspinall fight<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was meant to fight [Aspinall]. The UFC tried sandbagging me with this young guy \u2014 they said, \u2018he\u2019s a heavyweight, so you\u2019ll have to fight at heavyweight.\u2019 I said, \u2018the guy\u2019s an absolute monster, what are you trying to do to me?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Craig is the kind of guy who will take on just about any challenge, but Aspinall may have been a step too far. Of course, this weekend, Tom will make his return to the cage when he defends his UFC heavyweight championship against Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC 321.<\/p>\n<p>How do you believe a fight between these two would\u2019ve gone? Let us know your thoughts on this and Paul\u2019s career as a whole, BJPENN Nation!<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former UFC star Paul Craig has revealed that he was once offered the chance to fight Tom Aspinall&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-232239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}