‘Only two things can happen’… Tom Aspinall reveals his fighting philosophy for the UFC 304 heavyweight title rematch

With a sell-out crowd expected at the new Co-Op Live arena for the match, Aspinall has tried to leave no stone unturned in his first line of defence. And a big part of that is the mental side of the game, where he is one of the strongest in his division.

Tom Aspinall keeps calm ahead of UFC 304 co-headliner with key philosophy

With his career on the rise, Tom Aspinall faces a multitude of pressures as he heads into one of his biggest fights to date. To continue his pursuit of Jones, he will need to banish the demons of his only UFC loss to Curtis Blaydes.

But he boils it all down to the simple fact that only one of two possible outcomes can happen. “People make fighting too complicated,” he told fans in the latest episode of his YouTube vlog series. “I’ve made it way too complicated over the years.

“Ultimately in a fight there are only two real things that can happen, there are other variables of course. But generally you can win or lose, so I always try to come back to that.

“Let’s not make it too complicated, there are two of us, we can think all day about what will or will not happen. There is pressure that comes with it, I will not shy away from that, especially not with a fight like this.

“It’s in Manchester, rematch, defending a title and stuff like that. There’s a lot of pressure, but I always try to come back to the fact that two things can happen, I can beat him or he can beat me.

“I always try to come back to that, because your emotions can get out of hand under pressure, that’s possible. Especially when you start to get tired, like at this point in the camp. I’ve trained a lot, a lot of volume and a lot of rounds, my body is battered and I’m mentally tired.

“So I try to remind myself that there are only two things that can happen here, win or lose. Either way, the world keeps turning and it’s going to be okay.”

Tom Aspinall explains how he overcame a devastating injury and made a comeback in the UFC

In the summer of 2022, Tom Aspinall was in the midst of a spate of five early stoppages in his UFC run. When he faced Curtis Blaydes, it was expected to be his toughest challenge yet, but he crashed out within seconds with a freak knee injury.

It turned out that he had torn his MCL and meniscus, as well as done some damage to his ACL, and he was forced out of the cage for a year. He had to change his habits outside of the cage during a grueling rehabilitation period, and began meditation and therapy.

“I trained a lot mentally,” he admitted. “I did therapy, started doing a lot of breathing exercises which I still do and hypnotherapy was also important for me, I did a lot of things like that. I think, being injured, I was out of action from fighting for a year.

“It was a good little reset for me to be able to focus on what I needed and what I needed to do at that time was really put myself first in terms of everything. So how I trained, how I ate, how I slept, the people I hung out with.

“It really gave me the opportunity to focus on that and since then my life has gotten a lot better and you can see that in my results. That was all good, but for me, in a depressing period at the time, a routine helps a lot.”

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