UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has revealed the extreme thing fighters are required to do if they break a little-known rule.
Aspinall, 32, was upgraded from interim to undisputed UFC heavyweight champion following Jon Jones’ retirement last weekend.
And the Atherton-born fighter has since appeared on ‘The Diary of a CEO’ podcast, where he spoke in detail about his life and how he’s gone from struggling to provide for his family at 25 years old, to earning six-figure paydays in the UFC just seven years later.
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Aspinall also promised that he would be involved in at least two fights this year and even claimed that one fighter was “due a beating”.
“One of the guys I haven’t fought is a French guy called Ciryl Gane,” Aspinall claimed. “That is a fight I was chasing a few times before. He was ducking and diving a little bit himself, so he is due a beating from me. I look forward to that.”
He added: “Couple more guys down the rankings: there is a Brazilian guy called Jailton Almeida, who I have not fought, and there is a guy I have already beaten called Alexander Volkov, who is doing really well for himself.”
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And now that Aspinall is the UFC heavyweight champion, he will be required to follow a strict rule that all of the company’s champions must abide by.
During the podcast episode, host Steven Bartlett picked up Aspinall’s belt but explained how it was “only the replica” and that the fighter had the “real one at home”.
“I heard rumours online that the real thing actually costs about 300 grand,” Bartlett claimed.
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“And you have to sign a contract that if you lose this belt, then you have to personally pay.”
Aspinall replied: “If it goes missing, I’m paying for it, so hopefully that won’t happen, but it’s in a very safe spot, so it won’t go missing.”
Bartlett then questioned why the belt had “flags around it”.
Instead, Aspinall focused on the stones, which are emblazoned on the belt.
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“You get one of those (the stones) … I think on a real one they’re diamonds, but on this one… a ruby or something," Aspinall added.
"You get a ruby when you defend it. So I defended it once, and obviously that fills up the more you do it.”
Topics: Tom Aspinall, UFC, MMA, Jon Jones
Luke Davies