Bisping wants you to bet the house on Aspinall destroying Pavlovich at UFC 295 in New York City.
On November 11th at Madison Square Garden, Tom Aspinall has a chance to become just the third U.K. fighter to claim UFC championship gold. All he has to do is get past Sergei Pavlovich, a feat the first U.K. UFC champion Michael Bisping is confident he’ll do.
“Bet your house on it,” Bisping told Betway (maybe don’t bet your house on it). “1000% Tom Aspinall goes out there and beats Sergei Pavlovich and makes it look relatively easy and hardly breaks a sweat just like he did against Marcin Tybura.”
Aspinall beat Tybura in just 1:13 when they clashed in July 2023, Tommy’s last fight before getting a last-minute interim heavyweight title fight against Pavlovich. Pavlovich is no stranger to quick finishes either: the Russian knockout artist hasn’t left the first round since 2017.
“Granted, this is a step up in competition, which Tom knows,” Bisping admitted. “But I’ll call the finish right now: In and out, in and out, jab, jab, one-two, double leg takedown, that’s a wrap. Then me and Tom Aspinall are sitting in New York on Sunday with his dad and with the team, we’re having beers.”
Bisping sees an extremely bright future ahead for Aspinall.
“Tom absolutely can become the best heavyweight of all time,” he said. “Tom’s doing a Bisping – in terms of the short notice, but Tom’s going to surpass my career. Tom’s going to make my career look like an amateur career. Tom’s going to reign supreme in the heavyweight division for a very long time.”
“Apart from Jon Jones and maybe Stipe Miocic, Tom is times better than the rest. He’s faster, he’s stronger, he’s better. He’s a better wrestler. He’s got great jujitsu. He hits like a truck. He moves like Muhammad Ali. He’s humble. He’s young. He’s in his prime. And he’s from Lancashire.”
Aspinall would join Michael Bisping and Leon Edwards in the U.K. champ club, although we’re sure he’ll be eager to upgrade the interim title to a full championship as soon as possible. That may not be for a while.
First, champ Jon Jones has to recover from his torn pectoral — timeline: 6-9 months. Then he has to go through a training camp to fight Stipe Miocic. Tack on another 2-3 months. Will he retire after that? Take several months off? Unlike Aspinall’s fight times, there’ll be nothing quick about the quagmire brewing at the top of the heavyweight division.