Morning Report: Darren Till sold on Tom Aspinall as future champion: ‘He would play with Jon Jones’

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Ladies and gentlemen, England’s Tom Aspinall appears to be as legit as they come in the UFC heavyweight division.

Aspinall’s UFC victories have displayed a fine blend of finishing abilities seeing three TKOs and two submissions. With none bigger than his fresh win against former Bellator champion and 44-fight veteran, Alexander Volkov, it has many believing the sky is the limit for the 28-year-old.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of those believers is UFC middleweight Darren Till who celebrated with Aspinall directly following the career highlight.

“He just texted me and told me to stop calling out [Ciryl] Gane for him,” Till said on The Triple C & Schmo Show. “He wants to fight Tai [Tuivasa] then Gane. So I think he knows his road. I think he’s gonna be the next champion at heavyweight.

“I think he would play with [Jon] Jones, I really do.”

The 12-2 Manchester native remains unbeaten in the octagon after extending his current winning streak to eight with his first-round straight armbar submission of Volkov in the UFC London headliner. In victory or defeat, Aspinall has yet to need the judges’ scorecards with his longest fight extending to the 3:59 mark of round two back in his days with BAMMA.

At present, it seems hard to imagine an Aspinall vs. Jon Jones fight coming to fruition due to many different factors. However, alongside Till to discuss the topic was Till’s new “BFF,” UFC welterweight contender Khamzat Chimaev.

A rather confident individual himself, Chimaev couldn’t help but praise Jones, who he considers the very best fighter MMA has ever seen.

“Nobody’s like him. Nobody,” Chimaev said. “He beats the lot of guys, he beats the monsters. I would do the work, all my training with Alex [Gustafsson], I know how good he is, and if Jon Jones could stop that guy, it’s scary.

“He beat not easy fighters, crazy good fighters with knockout power and the ground was good, everything was like perfect. And [beat] ‘DC’ [Daniel Cormier] with the pressure and wrestling, he has good boxing, his mentality is like just pressure the fighters and kill them, you know? He stopped that guy as well.”


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VIDEO STEW

A totally must-see Between the Links with a super cool returning contender.

“The Beast” Fight Week.

Top 10 Welterweight Submissions in UFC History.

Bo Nickal in MMA.

ONE: X Open Workouts: Stamp Fairtex and Angela Lee.


SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Role-playing.

BMF RDA.

Big boy Dustin.

Bless.

Hammer time.

We’ll agree to disagree.

Cleary speaks.

Tony?

Supportive Izzy.

Back when we had to quarantine…

Champ weight.


FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Ryan Spann (19-7) vs. Ion Cutelaba (16-6-1); UFC Fight Night, May 14

Eryk Anders (14-6, 1 NC) vs. Jun Yong Park (13-5); UFC Fight Night, May 21

Andreas Michailidis (13-5) vs. Rinat Fakhretdinov (20-2); UFC Fight Night, June 4


FINAL THOUGHTS

It feels good to be champ. Thanks for reading and enjoy the weekend, everyone!


EXIT POLL


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