Tom Aspinall, who knocked out Sergey Pavlovic in 69 seconds last weekend in a fight for the interim UFC heavyweight championship belt, didn’t plan to humiliate the Russian by patronizingly placing a hand on his shoulder before the starting siren.
“I don’t even know – I saw a couple of photos and memes and it did look weird, but I had no intention to humiliate Sergey,” the Brit said on another edition of The MMA Hour program. “Sergey is not my enemy – he’s my sidekick, my brother. I treat him, if not as a friend, then as someone I respect before, during, and after the fight. This is my job, and I don’t have any negativity towards my opponents. I respect everyone who is involved in the sport. Now I realize it looked weird on camera, but I was just trying to show him my respect before the fight, that’s all”
Aspinall also made it clear that he doesn’t consider a Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic fight relevant after his win, and believes he should fight one of them.
“I feel like this fight has lost its luster. I don’t know what other people think, but I feel that my fight against Jones or against Miocic should be organized. I’m the best active heavyweight in the world right now, so let’s move on and let me fight one of these legends”
Recall that the title fight between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic was scheduled to headline UFC 295 in New York on November 11, however, the reigning champion was injured and pulled out of the fight, and the league’s management decided to play out an interim title fight between Pavlovic and Aspinall. Nevertheless, the UFC plans to have Jones and Miocic fight as soon as the champion recovers from surgery, with the winner taking on Aspinall.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/33153-tom-aspinall-ob-yasnil-strannyj-postupok-v-boyu-s-sergeem-pavlovichem.html?rand=19907
