The start to Wigan’s Tom Aspinall UFC career couldn’t have gone much better and he thanks his children for providing the motivation he needed to take the next step in his career.
Having finished both Jake Collier and Alan Baudot by first-round knockout, Tom has quickly captured the imagination and this weekend will take on a step up in competition, in the form of former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski.
A father of three at age 27, Tom travels for an hour from Atherton, Wigan to Team Kaobon in Liverpool and realises that this is time he would otherwise be spending at home with his children, “I’m out of the house for a long time when I train and it’s changed my whole intensity on training, to be honest”.
Aspinall has one-year-old twins, as well as, a five-year-old son.
“When I leave, I don’t want that time I am away from home to be wasted”.
“I used to go training and not put 100% in for years and I didn’t really realise that until I had twins. When I leave the house, it’s got to be worth leaving for, otherwise what’s the point? I will just be wasting everybody’s time”.
As for Arlovski, you would think the 42-year-old Belarussian would be winding down his illustrious career but with wins in three of his last four fights, he appears to still be able to justify his place amongst the elite.
He originally won the championship all the way back in 2005 and despite now having a large number of losses on his record ‘The Pitbull’ will have plenty to throw at Tom Aspinall.
A win for Tom will hopefully see him crack the top 15, as the former Wigan doorman continues to step out of teammate Darren Till’s shadow.
The fight is set to be a co-main event at UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs Lewis in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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