UFC: Tom Aspinall relishing 'fear' of headlining in London
- Published
Tom Aspinall has four wins in his UFC career so far
Rising British prospect Tom Aspinall is relishing being the main attraction for his fight against Russia's Alexander Volkov in a heavyweight main event at UFC London on 19 March.
The 28-year-old is on a seven-fight win streak with 12 wins and two losses and ready for the challenge of headlining for the first time in his UFC career - and in his backyard at the O2 Arena.
"I'm not trying to do a main event just to say that I've done a main event and go off into the sunset," said Aspinall.
"Opportunities don't come around like this all the time, so yeah I'm just very excited for it."
Aspinall's stock soared last year with stoppage wins over Andrei Arlovski and Sergey Spivak. But the Manchester-born fighter is not letting the spotlight change him, joking that moving house was his biggest challenge this year.
"Probably two of the most stressful things that you can ever do - the move is more difficult than the fight camp," he quipped.
Aspinall, currently ranked 10th in the heavyweight division, is an exciting striker who hasn't had a single fight progress past the second round. He will fight in front of a live crowd for the first time since signing with the UFC.
"I'm expecting it to be one of the most overwhelming experiences of my life, but I can perform very well under pressure," he added.
"When there's a lot at stake that's when I'm going to bring out my best performance because I need that fear to get me going. The fear is what makes me dangerous.
"When you feel threatened that's when you're going to do dangerous things, the more eyes on me the scarier it is and the better I'm going to perform."
Standing in his way is Volkov, a UFC veteran with 34 wins and nine losses. The 33 year-old stands 6ft 7in tall and is ranked fifth in the division.
Aspinall admits finding tall high-quality heavyweights to train with has been a bit of a challenge. He is still debating whether to travel to the Netherlands for sparring, but says his preparation plans are "top secret".
Aspinall said: "I've actually been sparring a guy who's like 6ft 9in, and a Thai boxing champion who's 6ft 6in.
"I'm 6ft 5in myself so it's not that much different to me, but 6ft 5in and 6ft 8in is the difference between big - and like really big.
Alexander Volkov (right) towers over most heavyweights in the UFC
"To find really tall guys who are high level is actually quite difficult, so I think I'm actually going to go to Holland."
Notably missing from the UFC London card is Aspinall's team-mate, Liverpudlian middleweight fighter Darren Till. While Aspinall admits it would have been nice to have him on the card, he feels everything happens for a reason.
He said: "If Till was fighting on the card, I wouldn't be the main event let's be honest. He's a much bigger draw than me.
"I think everything happens for a reason and this was meant for me. So it's my time to go and do my thing in front of all them people."