UFC champion Tom Aspinall is ‘dipping knuckles in petrol’ training for bizarre 5 AM fight

Tom Aspinall gets inspired by his gypsy heritage to prepare for his upcoming bout at UFC 304. 

UFC champion Tom Aspinall is ‘dipping knuckles in petrol’ training for bizarre 5 AM fight

Tom Aspinall reveals his new training method (via Imago)

Tom Aspinall is getting ready to defend his heavyweight title against Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304. The Manchester event has an impressive hype behind it given the popularity of UFC among British fans. Ahead of the fight, Aspinall has introduced some new things to his training camp, which are essentially wild to consider. 

The UFC 305 fight card will take place early in the morning to cater to the American audience back in the US. This has caused several problems for fighters who will have to fight at bizarre times. During a recent conversation with Ariel Helwani, Tom Aspinall shared his latest trick to stay sharp early morning as well as training his knuckles on a regular basis.

When it gets to about 4 a.m., I get my alarm on, I go outside, do a bit shadowboxing in the hay bales….and then I do the old traveler method of dipping your knuckles in petrol for about 20 minutes as the sun’s coming up, and that hardens your knuckles.
Tom Aspinall via The MMA Hour Show

According to Aspinall, he picked this technique from the 2011 documentary Knuckle which is about gypsy bare-knuckle fighters. Aspinall, going back to his gypsy roots believes this method has helped him create the hardest knuckles in the UFC. All this is in order to make his body alert during the early morning when the fight is supposed to take place at UFC 304.

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Aspinall has been showing concerns about the weird timings for a long time now. He even took help from the UFC welterweight champion and UFC 304 main event fighter Leon Edwards, regarding the situation. Aspinall is confident of winning against Curtis Blaydes. However, it wasn’t the fight the British star wanted initially. 

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Tom Aspinall’s future opponent blames UFC for not giving the Jon Jones fight 

Since becoming the UFC heavyweight interim champion, Tom Aspinall has frequently called out Jon Jones for a title unification bout. However, ‘Bones’ didn’t show interest and stuck to his potential legacy fight against heavyweight GOAT Stipe Miocic. This prompted Aspinall to mock Jones for ducking him with many fans criticizing Jones for the same. 

Tom Aspinall and Jon Jones
Tom Aspinall and Jon Jones (via X)

Curtis Blaydes who will be fighting for the interim title against Tom Aspinall has the same opinion about Jones. During the recent media day at UFC Denver, Blaydes accused UFC of making weird matchmaking regarding the heavyweight clash. 

Honestly, in a perfect world, it should be Aspinall vs. Jon. But that's not the world we live in. The UFC's had a lot of weird wonky matchups over the years.
Curtis Blaydes via UFC Denver media day 

Blaydes has also dismissed Jones as the champion and has mentioned he and Aspinall are fighting for the real belt. With Jones potentially facing jail time for two misdemeanor charges, things could get interesting in the heavyweight division. Nevertheless, eyes are currently set on the UFC 304 co-main fight on July 27. 

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