How Tom Aspinall Overcame a Back Injury to Win the UFC Interim Heavyweight Title

Tom Aspinall had to overcome a major obstacle before he could step into the octagon and claim the UFC interim heavyweight title at UFC 295. The 29-year-old British fighter revealed that he suffered a severe back spasm during his final sparring session, which almost forced him to withdraw from his fight against Sergei Pavlovich.

Aspinall, who took the fight on short notice after Jon Jones pulled out of a title bout with Stipe Miocic, posted a video on social media showing him collapsing in pain after throwing a punch in the gym. He told The MMA Hour that he had never experienced anything like that before, and that his back locked up completely.

“It was just some freak thing that went on for a week,” he said. “It was really, really weird. It’s not like an ongoing injury. Everything’s fine. But it was just like my back seized up. A lot of anxiety over the last couple of weeks, to be honest. But I’ve been doing a lot of, I don’t want to say soul-searching, I’ve been doing a lot of knowing where I’m at, and finding what I’m like as a person.

“Ultimately, this is what draws me to this sport is, I want to find out what I’m like as a person. What is Tom like when s*** goes south? And a lot of stuff has been going south for me in this buildup, a lot of obstacles are coming my way. But as I kept saying in the pre-fight interviews, I know one thing for sure, I’m definitely not going to win the fight by watching it on TV.”