“It’s not true, I never said such a thing – complete nonsense,” the Briton said at a press conference in New York, responding to a relevant question from a journalist. “I didn’t say that. He pulled out of the fight once because he had visa problems, but I never said he pulled out of the fight because of fear. There was no such thing.”
Nevertheless, after his victory over Marcina Tybura in July this year, Tom Aspinall explained why he preferred to fight the winner of the fight between Cyril Gane and Sergey Spivak instead of challenging the Russian knockout artist as follows.
“I was supposed to fight him twice, but he refused both times,” Aspinall said at the post-fight press conference following UFC Fight Night 224. “I’m not saying he’s afraid of me – I’m just telling it like it is. Either way, we’re all going to fight each other, so it’s just a matter of order.”
Recall that the fight for the interim heavyweight title between Sergey Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall will be the second most important event of the UFC 295 tournament, which will take place on November 11 in New York.