Former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger, Chael Sonnen has claimed that he will handle media responsibilities and promotion for heavyweight contender, Tom Aspinall’s upcoming UFC Fight Night London main event outing against Curtis Blaydes on July 23.
Aspinall, who has so far enjoyed an impressive run of five consecutive victories during his Octagon tenure, headlined the most recent UFC London edition back in March – stopping former M-1 Global and Bellator heavyweight champion, Alexander Volkov.
Taking main event status for the first time during his UFC tenure, Aspinall managed to slice through Moscow striker, Volkov in dominant fashion – submitting the Russian kickboxing talent with a first round straight armbar.
Following the victory, Aspinall, who has been touted as a title challenger at heavyweight – at the very least, was paired with the afornoted, Blaydes for the promotion’s July return to the capital.
Chael Sonnen claims he will take over promotion duties for Tom Aspinall
And according to Sonnen, who questioned Aspinall’s ability to self-promote himself, he will now take the reigns as his “media representative” for his summer Octagon return.
“I really am going to handle the media going into Tom (Aspinall) for this fight (against Curtis Blaydes),” Chael Sonnen told The Mac Life. “We’re just going to see what happens. If the audience enjoys it, then we will go from there. Tom fights and trains very well but I wanted to give him the attention he deserves.”
“When I see a guy like Tom that’s 12-2 that now only fought a former world champion (Alexander Volkov), he also stopped him, he needs to be getting attention for that,” Chael Sonnen explained. “I’ll remind you of that main event, it was completely sold out with Tom at the top of the bill.”
According to Sonnen to boot, Aspinall is close to reaching title contender status in the UFC – which would only be bolstered by a victory over Blaydes at The O2 Arena in July.
“Tom gets the credit for that, I don’t know that Tom always goes out and demands that credit though,” Chael Sonnen explained. “I think that Tom is one fight away from being in a world championship spot and not for nothing, they’ve (the UFC) dealt him from the bottom of the deck.”