UFC 295 Aftermath: Tom Aspinall Nearly Pulled Out Before Massive Interim Title Win

Aspinall almost didn't make it to UFC 295.

Fernando Quiles Jr. | Nov 13, 2023

UFC 295 Aftermath: Tom Aspinall Nearly Pulled Out Before Massive Interim Title Win /

Tom Aspinall nearly wasn't a part of UFC 295.

Aspinall had a massive knockout victory over Sergei Pavlovich to win the interim UFC Heavyweight Championship this past Saturday night (November 11). Aspinall only needed one minute and nine seconds to put his opponent to sleep.

As it was, Aspinall was at a bit of a disadvantage given he did not have a training camp for the short notice interim title fight, while Pavlovich was preparing as an emergency backup in the now postponed Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic bout. As it turns out, he had a lot more to worry about.

During an appearance on "The MMA Hour," Tom Aspinall revealed that he suffered a back injury that jeopardized the interim championship fight with Pavlovich.

"I wanted to do like one good spar, this was in the fourth round of sparring, never experienced anything like it before," Aspinall said. "I just had some crazy back spasm, my back just seized up, nothing really even happened. I just threw a couple of punches and my back just stiffened up really badly and I was basically unable to work out from that point onwards. It's been a crazy couple of weeks."

When Ariel Helwani asked Aspinall if the fight was in jeopardy, the newly-minted interim heavyweight champion kept it short and sweet.

"Yes," Aspinall admitted.

Aspinall said that at first, he was wondering what he was going to do since he couldn't even get out of bed. Luckily, he has been recovering.

"Literally, a couple of days after I couldn't really move or walk after I did it," Aspinall said. "It's actually a lot better. I got a lot of treatment on it the last couple of weeks and stuff. So, as I started getting treatment and giving it a bit of time it did get a little bit better."

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Published Nov 13, 2023

FERNANDO QUILES JR.

Fernando has over a decade of combat sports news writing experience. He currently covers MMA, boxing, and pro wrestling. Fernando joined MMA Knockout as the Lead Writer/Editor when it was founded in 2023.