Tom Aspinall could force the UFC’s hand in his UFC 304 main event fight with Curtis Blaydes, according to Daniel Cormier.
Briton Aspinall rematches American wrestler Blaydes in Manchester later this month in defence of the interim heavyweight championship he secured last November inside Madison Square Garden; a fight which comes about due to the UFC’s insistence on pairing divisional champ Jon Jones against Stipe Miocic when he returns from a pectoral injury.
And while that fight is heavily rumoured to take place in New York City in November, Cormier — a former two-division champion in his own right — says that Aspinall could insert himself into the immediate title picture if he finishes Blaydes in devastating fashion when they square off in Manchester’s Co-Op arena late on July 27th.
“Could you imagine if Tom Aspinall just washes out Curtis Blaydes?” Cormier said of the fight on his YouTube channel, as reported by MMA Junkie.
“Then the firestorm that would start to gather for him to fight Jones. For there to truly be an uprising, it would have to be Aspinall destroying Blaydes. Only because of this, you’ve seen Curtis Blaydes lose before, so people would think, ‘Oh, he beat Tom Aspinall, but we’ve seen him get beat by Francis [Ngannou] and we’ve seen him lose to other guys. He’s going to lose to Jones.’
“But if Aspinall goes through Blaydes in the way that he did Sergei Pavlovich, and he’s only lost because of that injury, people would lose their minds almost insisting that he and Jones fight. If Tom Aspinall can get through this fight, and he’s clean and he looks dominant, there may be such a fan uprising that the UFC may have to be forced to make Jones vs. Aspinall. I don’t know what that would mean for my man Stipe, but it sounds like if it does happen, he’s OK with it.”
Aspinall does have a tendency to win his fights quickly and decisively. In his 17 fights to date, not one has seen the end of the second round, with each of his seven UFC wins coming via finish. Even his sole loss, due to a knee injury in his first fight with Blaydes two years ago, came just 15 seconds into the first round.
When pressed on the matter, UFC boss Dana White has maintained in recent months that Jones vs. Miocic will be the next heavyweight title bout if and when they are ready — but if one is to suffer some sort of setback that would delay the bout further, Aspinall could force the UFC’s hand in awarding him that undisputed title fight that his body of work — and fans — seem to demand.
