Tom Aspinall Considered Retiring After His Knee Injury

By FIGHTSPORTS Nov 8, 2023 Last updated Nov 8, 2023

Tom Aspinall almost walked away from MMA in the aftermath of his knee injury against Curtis Blaydes.

The UFC heavyweight sustained the injury in the first round of his 2022 fight, which was a huge setback as a win would have put Aspinall in line for a world title shot. And the impact was all the more difficult to deal with since the injury occurred just within 15 seconds of the fight. That was Aspinall’s first UFC defeat as the fighter considered his future moving forward.

“[It was] depressing, horrendous, absolutely horrendous. Again, made me want to quit the sport for a little while. For a couple of days, I didn’t want to carry on. I fell out with everything and everyone for a little. It’s just not very nice mate.

It’s just horrendous, lay on the floor on your back in front of 22,000 of your own fans with a knee that is numb, locked up, being unable to move it, and knowing that, well I was supposed to go away. “I was supposed to go see family in Poland for like a month, I was going to do a little tour of Poland, see family and friends and everything. Misses and the kids were already out there, had to cancel that. Had to go down to London, get surgery, and recover for a year. It was not ideal,” Aspinall said

Despite that being the case, Aspinall came back with a bang. During his return against Marcin Tybura at a UFC Fight Night event, the Brit stopped his opponent in the first round before calling out Jon Jones in the aftermath. However, the latter has since then suffered an injury to his pectoral muscle during some sparring as the American pulled out of his fight against Stipe Miocic. But provided that Jones returns back to full health, then Aspinall could face the winner of Jones vs. Miocic moving forward and secure his first UFC world title.