Tom Aspinall is more than willing to get his next fight booked, but he no longer thinks it would be against light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
Aspinall has finally moved on from Jon Jones after a series of callouts, which were only welcomed negatively by the champ. Aside from turning down the challenge, “Bones” ridiculed the interim champ’s record and achievements, pushing Aspinall to decide to “stop crying” about that matter. After that, the Briton shifted his focus to other possible fights, including Pereira.
The talks about the possibility of the fight started with Glover Teixeira, Pereira’s coach, expressing confidence in his fighter making the weight. For the former fighter, “‘Poatan’ has the discipline for it,” making the move possible. After this, the Brazilian posted a cryptic message on social media, causing fans to believe that it had something to do with the UFC 300 card and a fight against Aspinall. However, the champ dismissed the idea and later said that the heavyweight move was “not the plan at the moment.” Despite that, Aspinall showed interest in the fight.
“If he wants to, I will,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel last month. “But I’m going on record and saying I’m not a bully. I don’t bully smaller guys. But, if the smaller guy wants a scrap, count me in.”
More than two months since the talk started, however, Aspinall said there’s still no progress about that possibility. While this gives fans hope that the fight could still be pushed, the Briton revealed this week that it might no longer be the case.
According to Aspinall in a recent interview with The MMA Hour, he confirmed that the light heavyweight’s move to the higher class weight was confirmed by their mutual friends. With all this, the 30-year-old said he’s now abandoning the plan.
“…There were talks about Alex Pereira moving up to heavyweight,” recalled Aspinall. “As I said, mate, I’m not the kind of guy who’s gonna start turning down fights. I’ve never turned down a fight in my life, and I’m not going to start now.
“When I started hearing rumors about that, me and Alex, we did a little bit of online flirting back and forward. But we have a couple of mutual friends, and it came to light that Alex isn’t gonna move up to heavyweight yet. I respect Alex, respect his decision. He’s a champion in his own right.
“Fair play. I’m not going to push for that anymore.”
