I was meant to be on holiday but now I’m fighting for UFC title on two weeks notice after replacing an MMA icon
TOM ASPINALL was a day out from a holiday before he got a phone call that could change his career.
The British heavyweight challenges for the interim UFC title over the weekend in New York against Sergei Pavlovich.
But the card was due to be headlined by UFC legends Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic for the full belt.
That was until Jones, 36, suffered a pectoral injury that requires surgery and forced him off the card.
Miocic, 41, decided to sit out and wait to reschedule the bout, leaving the UFC scrambling to find a pair of replacements.
That was when Aspinall, 30, got the phone call of a lifetime in the early hours of the morning.
He told TNT Sports: “Do you know what? I got the call early in the morning, so I was sleeping.
“And it was off someone really high up in the UFC, not Dana White but someone really high up, who’s never called me before.
“And I could hear my phone vibrating on the side of me like this and I was like, ‘That’s weird someone ringing me at that time.’
“So I picked it up and as I picked it up I saw the person’s name and then it went off, you know like it stopped ringing.
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“I thought, ‘Right, I’m just going to go back to sleep it’s 6am, I’ve got a few hours.’
“And then obviously my mine starts going and as soon as my mind started going, I was like, ‘Someone’s pulling out of New York here.’
“I just knew it straight away. So I rung him back and he said, ‘Listen, I’m not going to tell you what’s happened because it’s not for sure yet. I’m going to let you know in the next 24 hours.’
“And I was supposed to be going on holiday the next day, so I said, ‘Listen, you’re going to have to let me know because I’m going on holiday. I’m going away tomorrow!’
“Anyway he rung me back at 4am the following night and he told me what’s going on.
“He said, ‘Jon Jones is injured, Stipe doesn’t want to fight anybody else bar Jon Jones so you and Big Pavers on MSG.’ and I said, ‘I’m in.'”
Aspinall – who has won nine of his last ten – bids to become only the third Brit behind Michael Bisping and Leon Edwards to hold UFC gold.
Bisping famously became the first in 2017 when he filled in on only 17 days notice to knock out Luke Rockhold for the middleweight title.