Uncensored - Piers Morgan - 20241213_ufcs-tom-aspinall-calls-out-jon-jones
Aired: 2024-12-13
Duration: 33:46


=== Heavyweight Star Tom Aspinault (05:32) ===

[00:00:00]  Who's next big heavyweight star?
[00:00:02]  Tom Aspinault.
[00:00:03]  The guy who just won't be interim title.
[00:00:05]  He's phenomenal.
[00:00:06]  You say that John McDonald has the potential to be the biggest heavyweight fighter of all time.
[00:00:11]  It doesn't have the potential.
[00:00:12]  It's going to be.
[00:00:13]  It's going to be the biggest heavyweight fight ever.
[00:00:15]  John Jones some Aspinault, that's happening in 2025.
[00:00:19]  One wrong move today and this could be the end of me.
[00:00:21]  That's right, it could be.
[00:00:22]  He literally walked into the room and said, it's happening.
[00:00:25]  He says he wants fucking money.
[00:00:27]  I imagine Daniel would pay him fucking money.
[00:00:29]  I don't really care about money at this point.
[00:00:30]  It's about the belt.
[00:00:31]  He has failed a couple of drug tests.
[00:00:33]  Does it make him a cheat?
[00:00:34]  Yeah, of course it does.
[00:00:35]  How do you think he'll feel when he sees you calling him a cheat on sense?
[00:00:38]  Is he ducking you?
[00:00:39]  But it's not about John's resume.
[00:00:41]  It's about who's the best in the world right now.
[00:00:43]  And I think of me, every time I do it now, it's like a step closer to never doing it again.
[00:00:49]  Even doing this interview, you're incredibly confident.
[00:00:51]  A big old Piers.
[00:00:54]  Whoa.
[00:00:55]  No, just bang.
[00:00:59]  Holy shit.
[00:01:02]  Well, Dana White's UFC is now one of the biggest sports in America, if not the world, surpassing the NHL earlier this year to join the big four.
[00:01:10]  Donald Trump and his top team are among its notable fans.
[00:01:13]  And judging by the reaction he gets inside the UFC arena, that feeling is mutual.
[00:01:18]  One of the rising superstars of this new all-American sporting juggernaut is in fact a homegrown Brit.
[00:01:25]  Tom Aspinall is the interim UFC heavyweight champion.
[00:01:28]  And if I seem a little more nervous than usual, it's because he's right here with me in the studio, bristling with danger.
[00:01:37]  Tom, how are you?
[00:01:38]  I'm doing all right, thank you.
[00:01:40]  I did think to myself, if I asked the wrong question here, you are, many people believe right now, the single most dangerous person on planet Earth.
[00:01:51]  What would you do if I misjudged a question?
[00:01:53]  Nothing.
[00:01:54]  I do absolutely.
[00:01:55]  I just fight for money.
[00:01:56]  That's all I'm interested in.
[00:01:57]  Money and to be the best fighter in the world.
[00:01:59]  I'm not interested in punching anybody.
[00:02:02]  You had a gentle handshake.
[00:02:03]  I mean, nothing too intimidating.
[00:02:05]  You didn't try and break my arm.
[00:02:06]  Nope.
[00:02:06]  No, I don't have anything to prove.
[00:02:08]  What am I going to prove by squeezing your hand?
[00:02:10]  When was the last street fight you had?
[00:02:12]  Oh, sorry.
[00:02:14]  I used to work on the door, like I used to work before.
[00:02:17]  So all my jobs.
[00:02:18]  In Salford, right?
[00:02:19]  In Wigan, actually, yeah.
[00:02:21]  Which is a very similar area anyway.
[00:02:22]  All my jobs have been like just to fund MMA training.
[00:02:28]  Right.
[00:02:28]  So everything that I did was kind of like just to fund me putting fuel in the car, buying supplements, doing what I need to do.
[00:02:35]  So I used to work on the door a little bit and I had a couple of, you know, not even street fights, just like tussles here and there.
[00:02:44]  How do they tend to end, Tom?
[00:02:45]  All right, all right.
[00:02:47]  All right for me, but not very good for them.
[00:02:49]  I mean, it's different.
[00:02:50]  And I'm like fighting a drunk person when I'm not drunk is obviously not very fair.
[00:02:55]  So it's not something that I really want to do.
[00:02:57]  I'm interested in doing it for sport, not anything.
[00:02:59]  When I did Celebrity Apprentice, which obviously Donald Trump was the host of, many years ago, and I was in it with Lennox Lewis.
[00:03:06]  And I said, what was it like when you were a heavyweight champion of the world?
[00:03:08]  I said, people ever try and take you on in a club or something.
[00:03:11]  He went, all the time.
[00:03:12]  I said, really?
[00:03:13]  He said, yeah, if I go out in New York or Miami or somewhere, there's always the biggest guy in the club at some stage of the night will come and as a matter of honor, he'll want to take me on.
[00:03:22]  I went, well, how often did that happen when you were a world heavyweight champ?
[00:03:25]  And he went, a lot.
[00:03:26]  I said, and what used to happen?
[00:03:28]  He went, dude, what do you think happened?
[00:03:30]  I was the heavyweight champion of the world.
[00:03:33]  So it seemed like for years, Lennox was walking around just banging people over in nightclubs because they had the audacity to challenge it.
[00:03:39]  Well, I don't do any of that.
[00:03:40]  But you get people.
[00:03:41]  Yeah, I do, actually.
[00:03:42]  Yeah, that's really a real thing, unfortunately.
[00:03:45]  People want to.
[00:03:45]  How do you handle it?
[00:03:47]  Well, usually I've got friends there who handle it for me, let's say, a little bit.
[00:03:51]  But, you know, it's never, I've never had it so much somebody come up and be like, I want to fight you, as such.
[00:03:58]  It's more just like people being a nuisance to the point where it's like you have to tell them to go away and then they get upset.
[00:04:03]  And as you've got more famous and more successful and you're now the heavyweight champion of UFC, are you getting it more that kind of thing?
[00:04:11]  Is it making your ability to just go out and enjoy yourself more difficult?
[00:04:15]  Yeah, it is.
[00:04:17]  But I'm not a massive going out person anyway, to be honest.
[00:04:19]  I'm more of a stay-at-home like homebody family person as opposed to, I mean, don't get me wrong.
[00:04:24]  Everyone needs a blowout sometimes and, you know, a few times a year I will go to clubs and bars and stuff like that, but it's not something i'm doing every week.
[00:04:31]  To be honest, you seem a nice guy, Tom.
[00:04:33]  You seem just like a regular northern bloke.
[00:04:36]  I think I could go and have a couple of pints of hand pump Tetley's with and we get on like a house on fire.
[00:04:40]  And yet i've seen you fight and when you get in that octagon it's like a switch goes.
[00:04:46]  You become, I mean, a very dangerous person, a lethal operator.
[00:04:53]  Where does that come from?
[00:04:55]  You know, people often talk about like this switch thing.
[00:04:59]  You know, I flick the switch, I go.
[00:05:01]  Do you feel that?
[00:05:02]  I was just gonna say I?
[00:05:03]  For me personally, that doesn't exist at all.
[00:05:05]  Like, for me, it's literally i'm doing a sport.
[00:05:09]  When I my outlook on MMA, i'm fighting in the octagon in front of millions of people at this point.
[00:05:14]  For me personally, that's just a sport.
[00:05:16]  Like i'm going in, i'm gonna do my techniques, he's gonna do his techniques, my training is gonna take over, his training is gonna take over and it's either me or him.
[00:05:26]  There's no.
[00:05:28]  In all honesty, when I fight i'm like emotionally cold to anything.
[00:05:31]  I'm just completely calm.

=== Fighting Fear in the Octagon (15:54) ===

[00:05:33]  I can see everything like it's just.
[00:05:35]  It's just like another training day for me.
[00:05:37]  It's not.
[00:05:37]  It's nothing, no big deal or big fight or anything.
[00:05:40]  I'm just doing what I do every day.
[00:05:41]  I want to play a clip.
[00:05:42]  This is Joe Rogan speaking to the ROCK.
[00:05:46]  UH, about you?
[00:05:49]  Who's next big heavyweight star?
[00:05:53]  Tom Aspinall, the guy who just won his interim title.
[00:05:56]  He's phenomenal and he is again the next adv the, the next advancement of the evolution of the sport.
[00:06:04]  How so?
[00:06:04]  Well, because he can do everything.
[00:06:06]  That guy's got elite jujitsu, he's got elite takedowns, his striking is outstanding.
[00:06:11]  I mean, he knocked out Sergey, who's the scariest striker in all of MMA yeah, and he knocked him out in the first round and, and the way he did it was just picture perfect.
[00:06:21]  I watched that fight again today to remind myself, and another person who watched it was Donald Trump, who was in the audience.
[00:06:26]  Yeah, what was that like to have Trump sitting there?
[00:06:29]  Well, that was crazy, because Madison Square guy yeah, Madison Square, yeah.
[00:06:32]  So, first of all, I took that fight on short notice, on two weeks notice, and the guy who I fought was he was like 16 and one and he was I mean, he was a unit yeah, and he was coming off like something like six first round knockouts who was just knocking out everybody.
[00:06:46]  So I took the fight on short notice, which wasn't ideal because he was already trained for the fight and I wasn't.
[00:06:51]  I'd actually just come back from a stag do when I took the fight, which is obviously not ideal.
[00:06:56]  But yeah, we got there and like they stick you in a dressing room where obviously you do your warm-up, get your hands wrapped and all that stuff, and always there's like a screen of what people at home are seeing in their dressing room.
[00:07:09]  But I But I try not to look at it because I do get a little bit starstruck when I see like people, celebrities and stuff coming in.
[00:07:16]  So I didn't actually know that Donald Trump was there.
[00:07:19]  And then I don't know if you've seen like I get in like a crouch position before I fight.
[00:07:22]  It's just something else.
[00:07:23]  Yeah, yeah.
[00:07:23]  I posted it today.
[00:07:24]  Yeah.
[00:07:24]  Oh, you did?
[00:07:25]  I did.
[00:07:25]  Saying one wrong move today and this could be the end of me.
[00:07:28]  That's right.
[00:07:28]  It could be.
[00:07:29]  Could be.
[00:07:30]  So you're turning that.
[00:07:31]  No, you're into fight mode.
[00:07:32]  I get in that position.
[00:07:33]  And I could just see this like, I'm obviously looking at my opponent.
[00:07:37]  I can see like his corner in the peripheral.
[00:07:40]  And I just see this like weird blonde, you know, Barnet that he's got going on.
[00:07:46]  And something, I just kind of recognised it.
[00:07:49]  You know, like...
[00:07:49]  Yeah.
[00:07:50]  Well, it's a very recognised position.
[00:07:52]  But I could see it like out of the corner of my eye.
[00:07:53]  So I looked.
[00:07:54]  It's like, oh, it's Donald Trump.
[00:07:56]  And I was like, I've got this big Russian guy in front of me.
[00:07:58]  I better focus on him and then we'll think about Trump later.
[00:08:01]  Did you see Trump that night?
[00:08:02]  No, I actually didn't.
[00:08:03]  I seen him.
[00:08:03]  I was in New York again last week and he was at the event there as well.
[00:08:06]  And obviously.
[00:08:07]  Did you meet him then?
[00:08:08]  I didn't meet him.
[00:08:08]  I've not met him yet.
[00:08:09]  No.
[00:08:10]  I can probably make that happen.
[00:08:11]  What, me and Trump?
[00:08:12]  Yeah.
[00:08:13]  What a collab that would be.
[00:08:15]  But he's a John Jones fan.
[00:08:17]  Yeah.
[00:08:17]  I mean, Jones, when he won, went over and gave Trump his belt and stuff.
[00:08:22]  I mean, given I'm a Brit like you, if you were to fight Jones and win, and I was sitting in the front row, would I get the belt?
[00:08:28]  I'd pass you the belt.
[00:08:29]  Absolutely.
[00:08:32]  Do I get the walkout?
[00:08:34]  If you want the walkout, you can hold the spit bucket.
[00:08:35]  Really?
[00:08:36]  You can waft me around in between, you know, give me that one in between the rounds and stuff.
[00:08:40]  Do you know what?
[00:08:40]  My sons, if I did that, if I walked out near you, Vegas.
[00:08:45]  They'd love it.
[00:08:45]  The John Jones fight.
[00:08:46]  Oh, I've become father of the universe.
[00:08:48]  Oh, yeah.
[00:08:48]  Yeah.
[00:08:49]  But that's the fight everybody wants.
[00:08:51]  Dana White, who I've interviewed, I find a fascinating character.
[00:08:54]  And he said this about the potential of you and John Jones, who is, in his eyes, the greatest of all time.
[00:09:00]  Let's take a look.
[00:09:02]  You say that John and Tom has the potential to be the biggest heavyweight fighter of all time.
[00:09:07]  Is that a fight that you think you could go against your normal rules and go for a stadium?
[00:09:14]  It doesn't have the potential.
[00:09:16]  It's going to be.
[00:09:17]  It's going to be the biggest heavyweight fight ever.
[00:09:20]  And it'll probably be the biggest fight we've ever done.
[00:09:23]  Dana White says, you and John Jones, the biggest fight in UFC history.
[00:09:28]  What did you feel when you heard that?
[00:09:31]  Well, I agree.
[00:09:32]  Actually, I didn't.
[00:09:33]  So that took part, that took place, that interview, right after the Jones fight the same night.
[00:09:39]  And actually, right after that press conference, I had a meeting with Dana.
[00:09:43]  Yes, because later in that interview with the press, he says he's got you waiting to see.
[00:09:48]  Yeah, I was waiting outside.
[00:09:49]  So what happened?
[00:09:49]  Literally outside that room.
[00:09:51]  So I hadn't seen any of this stuff that he said.
[00:09:53]  So in all honesty, I was expecting him to come and we maybe negotiate a little bit.
[00:09:58]  And he literally walks into the room and said, it's happening.
[00:10:01]  And I said, well, he's going to want loads of money.
[00:10:04]  And he said, I know, but it's happening.
[00:10:06]  And he said, it's going to be the biggest fight in USC history.
[00:10:09]  Does that mean John Jones has agreed?
[00:10:11]  I don't think so, but I think I don't know what John Jones.
[00:10:14]  In all honesty, John Jones is like, nobody knows what he's doing, even the USC.
[00:10:18]  So I don't know.
[00:10:19]  He says he wants fuck you money.
[00:10:20]  I imagine Dana will pay him fuck you money, wouldn't it?
[00:10:22]  I would imagine so.
[00:10:24]  I mean, I can't speak for Dana, but I would imagine.
[00:10:25]  Would you get fucking money?
[00:10:27]  No.
[00:10:28]  How much would you get for that fight?
[00:10:29]  I don't really care about money at this point.
[00:10:31]  I mean, obviously, I've got a family.
[00:10:33]  I want to make as much money as I can.
[00:10:34]  But to me, what's more important is unifying the belts.
[00:10:38]  See, in MMA, it's a little bit different to boxing in the aspect of you have different weight divisions, which is very light boxing, of course.
[00:10:46]  But usually you have one champion, one face, one name of every division.
[00:10:51]  Now, in the heavyweight division right now, there's two.
[00:10:53]  And I don't want there to be two because I feel like I'm the number one.
[00:10:58]  John obviously feels like he's the number one.
[00:11:00]  And let's fight about it.
[00:11:02]  It's not that difficult.
[00:11:03]  John often likes to talk about legacy and his history and all this stuff.
[00:11:08]  It's not about John.
[00:11:10]  It's about the belt.
[00:11:11]  And I want to be the unified champion.
[00:11:12]  So for me, it's not so much about money.
[00:11:14]  In a matchup with you and him, what skills does he have which you think currently he's better than you at?
[00:11:20]  And conversely, what do you think you have where you're better than him?
[00:11:24]  Well, John, let me first start by saying John is absolutely elite.
[00:11:27]  And I completely agree with the notion that he's one of the best fighters ever.
[00:11:31]  Is he the greatest?
[00:11:32]  Potentially, but the way that I look at it is he has failed a couple of drug tests.
[00:11:38]  To me, that rules you out of being the best of all time.
[00:11:41]  For me personally, yeah, I think.
[00:11:42]  Does it make him a cheat?
[00:11:43]  Yeah, of course it does.
[00:11:44]  Yeah, yeah.
[00:11:45]  If you're on steroids or whatever, I don't think he was on steroids, but he was on PEDs, performance-enhancing drugs.
[00:11:51]  If you're on PEDs and your opponent isn't, that's absolutely cheating in my book.
[00:11:56]  Unless you're both allowed to do it.
[00:11:57]  You've never taken anything else?
[00:11:58]  Absolutely not.
[00:11:59]  You never would?
[00:12:00]  When I retire, I will, yeah.
[00:12:01]  Absolutely.
[00:12:01]  To keep my body healthy.
[00:12:02]  And, you know, your body stops producing testosterone after a while.
[00:12:07]  To be a healthy, older gentleman, I'll probably do some kind of testosterone replacement.
[00:12:11]  You're suggesting I should be pumping for steroids.
[00:12:13]  No, I don't think you should be on steroids, but I think, I don't know, I don't know a lot about the subject, to be honest.
[00:12:19]  But I think when you fight in MMA, you absolutely shouldn't be using PEDs.
[00:12:23]  No.
[00:12:24]  So should he even be allowed to fight you?
[00:12:26]  Yeah, if he's not using them now, yeah.
[00:12:28]  Yeah, I think so.
[00:12:28]  Yeah, absolutely.
[00:12:29]  How do you think he'll feel when he sees you calling him a cheat on uncensored?
[00:12:33]  I don't know.
[00:12:34]  That's his defensive.
[00:12:36]  No, I'm not bothered.
[00:12:37]  John Jones seems to get his feelings hurt a little bit a lot.
[00:12:41]  Because he's a little snowflake.
[00:12:42]  I don't think he's a snowflake, no.
[00:12:44]  Is he ducking you?
[00:12:46]  No, he's trying to get more money.
[00:12:48]  I don't think he is ducking me.
[00:12:49]  He's trying to get more money.
[00:12:50]  Do you think he's scared of you or not?
[00:12:51]  No, but I think he's right.
[00:12:53]  I would be.
[00:12:53]  And I watched you demolish old Sergei.
[00:12:55]  I was like, there is not enough money in Dana White's bank, whichever one he's with.
[00:13:01]  There's not enough money in that bank to get me in a ring with you, even for 30 seconds.
[00:13:05]  You know what?
[00:13:06]  I agree.
[00:13:06]  I actually agree with a lot of what John says.
[00:13:09]  When you put the resumes next to each other, his resume is far superior to mine.
[00:13:14]  The risk reward for the both of us.
[00:13:16]  His risk is he has everything.
[00:13:17]  So on the skill differentials, where would you say he has the edge and where do you have the edge?
[00:13:22]  Well, he's amazing at everything.
[00:13:23]  He's amazing at everything.
[00:13:25]  Are you better than him at any one discipline?
[00:13:27]  No, but I'm way younger and way more athletic and way bigger and I possess a power that he's never seen before or even come close to.
[00:13:37]  But like I said, I completely agree with everything that he says in terms of resume, but it's not about John's resume.
[00:13:42]  It's about who's the best in the world right now.
[00:13:44]  And I think it's me.
[00:13:46]  Which would make you the greatest of all time?
[00:13:48]  No, it wouldn't.
[00:13:49]  It wouldn't.
[00:13:50]  But if you beat the goat.
[00:13:51]  No, it wouldn't.
[00:13:52]  Are you the new goat?
[00:13:53]  No, it would make me the best heavyweight right now.
[00:13:55]  And that's all I want.
[00:13:57]  What about Conor McGregor?
[00:13:59]  He's been very scathing of you on social media, taken you on a few times.
[00:14:05]  What do you feel about him?
[00:14:06]  I don't know Conor McGregor.
[00:14:08]  I've never met him.
[00:14:10]  I don't know why he chooses to do that.
[00:14:12]  No idea.
[00:14:13]  Are you a fan of his?
[00:14:14]  Of course.
[00:14:15]  Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[00:14:16]  Absolutely.
[00:14:17]  The stuff that he's done on his come up in the sport was fantastic.
[00:14:21]  In 2023, you said that you were over the Conor McGregor hype train, and he took to Twitter, as it was then, and said, say Sayonora to that GK, Jim King, deal kid, starve you and kill you.
[00:14:35]  I will, you effing, disrespectful prick.
[00:14:39]  Don't ever speak my name in disrespect again.
[00:14:41]  Mush potato head.
[00:14:43]  Yeah, I mean.
[00:14:44]  I'm not massively familiar with exactly what all that means, other than I don't think it was a compliment.
[00:14:49]  Yeah, I mean, he's not wrong about the head.
[00:14:51]  The head is quite potato-shaped.
[00:14:53]  I'm all right with that.
[00:14:55]  But I don't know why he's so offended.
[00:14:57]  I just said I'm not.
[00:14:58]  Any of you met him?
[00:14:58]  No, I've never met him.
[00:14:59]  Never met him.
[00:15:00]  What would have happened if you met him, dude?
[00:15:02]  Nothing against him, nothing.
[00:15:03]  Unless...
[00:15:04]  I mean, you're massively bigger than him.
[00:15:05]  I'm not bothered.
[00:15:06]  I'm not interested in stuff.
[00:15:07]  Yeah, not bothered.
[00:15:09]  That's fine.
[00:15:09]  What do you think?
[00:15:10]  I mean, he's obviously just been found guilty of raping a woman.
[00:15:14]  What do you think of that?
[00:15:15]  I actually don't know the ins and outs of it.
[00:15:18]  But if he is guilty, I obviously don't agree with that.
[00:15:22]  Obviously.
[00:15:25]  When you, as it sounds like from Dana White, you're going to get this chance to fight John Giants.
[00:15:31]  You come across so confident.
[00:15:33]  Is there any part of you as you walk towards the octagon then that will have the remotest apprehension about?
[00:15:43]  Absolutely.
[00:15:44]  I'm not like the most scared guy in the room.
[00:15:47]  Really?
[00:15:48]  Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[00:15:49]  Yeah.
[00:15:51]  That's fascinating, really?
[00:15:52]  Yeah, absolutely.
[00:15:53]  Yeah.
[00:15:53]  But is that fear or is it adrenaline stroke apprehension of making a mistake?
[00:15:58]  Well, probably all of it.
[00:15:59]  All of it.
[00:16:00]  But the fear fuels me to do what I'm doing.
[00:16:02]  Keeps you on the right end.
[00:16:03]  It makes me super sharp.
[00:16:04]  Without fear, I'm like nothing.
[00:16:06]  I think fear can do two things to you.
[00:16:08]  It can either destroy you or it can help you.
[00:16:10]  And I've figured out a way to let it help.
[00:16:13]  Like without that, I'm nothing.
[00:16:15]  I'm absolutely nothing.
[00:16:16]  I can't go and do what I do in front of millions of people.
[00:16:19]  Like I need the fear to be able to.
[00:16:21]  And the bigger the occasion, the bigger the opponent, the more scared I am.
[00:16:26]  And generally speaking, the better I do.
[00:16:28]  It's interesting.
[00:16:29]  I mean, even doing this interview, you're incredibly confident.
[00:16:32]  Thank you.
[00:16:33]  And I've seen a lot of people who just, you know, when they see me sitting.
[00:16:37]  They've got big old peers with a suit on.
[00:16:39]  They crumble, you know, like the fear bites in and they become like gibbering wrecks, but there's none of that with you.
[00:16:46]  Oh, thank you.
[00:16:46]  You've just given me the old piercing steer.
[00:16:48]  You flex the old tattooed arms and it's like, well, full smooth son.
[00:16:53]  Your career ends.
[00:16:53]  I'm not going to start.
[00:16:54]  Along with your life.
[00:16:55]  I'm not going to start swinging off the steel, right?
[00:16:57]  Don't worry about that.
[00:16:58]  I am worried about that.
[00:17:00]  No, none of that.
[00:17:02]  Tell me about your upbringing.
[00:17:03]  Is your dad sitting over there?
[00:17:05]  He pushed you all the way when you were young.
[00:17:08]  What was it that made you want to deviate from boxing?
[00:17:12]  Which a lot of people, I guess, in your part of the north of England would have gone down the boxing route.
[00:17:17]  Why was it MMA that you really wanted to be big at?
[00:17:22]  I mean, how long have we got on this?
[00:17:24]  What's the short version?
[00:17:25]  Well, the short version is: so I started training with my dad, like you say, since the first day, literally, my dad has been at near enough.
[00:17:33]  I'd say he's been at 99% of the training sessions that I've done in my life.
[00:17:37]  Really?
[00:17:37]  From the time of me being seven years old to now 31.
[00:17:42]  Traveled the world together.
[00:17:43]  This is mine and my dad's thing.
[00:17:44]  If my dad, if we walked out this interview and my dad said, you know what, Tom, I think you should retire now.
[00:17:48]  I'd go, yep, no problem.
[00:17:50]  Absolutely.
[00:17:50]  Really?
[00:17:51]  That's how much I trust him.
[00:17:52]  Do you know what I mean?
[00:17:52]  This is mine and my dad's thing.
[00:17:54]  But yeah, I started off training just for like, I don't know, something to do, I guess, as a young kid.
[00:17:59]  I liked it.
[00:17:59]  I liked the combat sports.
[00:18:01]  I like the physical aspects of it.
[00:18:03]  For me, it works like in sync, physical and mental.
[00:18:08]  Like it really helps me focus on something.
[00:18:12]  And with MMA, especially, if you miss a day, you're behind.
[00:18:15]  So it gives me something to strive towards every day.
[00:18:18]  And yeah, it's just like a natural progression.
[00:18:21]  Once I realised that, like, I think I got to about 14, 15, and we started like training at a few different MMA gyms.
[00:18:29]  And I started realizing like people are actually not going into work.
[00:18:32]  Like, this is the job.
[00:18:34]  This is what they're doing to get money and not actually going to a building site.
[00:18:38]  Like where I'm from, people work on building sites, people work in car garages, people working factories and stuff like that.
[00:18:44]  Like people, these guys aren't doing a 12-hour shift in the factory.
[00:18:47]  These guys are going to the gym, going back home and going to the gym again.
[00:18:50]  And I wanted to do that.
[00:18:52]  But they're also getting into rings where they're going to be fighting.
[00:18:57]  And that was something that you found thrilling, exciting?
[00:19:01]  How would you categorise it?
[00:19:03]  Scary.
[00:19:04]  Yeah.
[00:19:05]  Very scary still.
[00:19:07]  I used to think, so before I was in the UFC, when I was like an amateur fighter even, I used to watch these UFC guys and USC champions on TV and think, I can't wait to be in that position because I won't be as nervous.
[00:19:18]  I won't be as apprehensive.
[00:19:19]  I won't be as scared.
[00:19:20]  I won't be overthinking everything.
[00:19:22]  Little did I know at the time is it just gets worse.
[00:19:25]  Just gets worse.
[00:19:26]  Like the occasion gets bigger.
[00:19:28]  Really?
[00:19:28]  And it gets worse every time.
[00:19:30]  And what do you physically feel then?
[00:19:32]  As you walk towards the optica, what do you feel?
[00:19:34]  I'm just trying to, like, every time I do it now, it's like a step closer to never doing it again.
[00:19:41]  I'm aware that I'm on like the second half of my career now.
[00:19:44]  And I just try and enjoy it and embrace it and just take in everything that I can because these are like really, really special moments and they're not going to last forever.
[00:19:53]  And one day, I'm going to be an old guy telling my grandkids, oh, I used to fight in the UFC and this happened.
[00:19:58]  I traveled to this place and fought this guy and I have all these stories and I'm living that right now and I try and enjoy it as much as I can.
[00:20:04]  We've got a clip of when you won 50,000.
[00:20:06]  I think it was not even that huge amount of money.
[00:20:08]  But at the time it was a big lot of money for me.
[00:20:10]  And you got quite emotional.
[00:20:11]  Let's take a look.
[00:20:18]  Yes!
[00:20:18]  Did I really?
[00:20:21]  Oh...
[00:20:21]  When you mum...
[00:20:42]  What do you think watching that?
[00:20:44]  It's not the best footage of me blubbering on camera, but I mean...
[00:20:46]  But an interesting insight into what it meant to you.
[00:20:48]  Yeah, I mean, at the time, that was a lot of money.
[00:20:52]  Because what they do in the UFC is they give you 50 grand bonuses for like performance of the night.
[00:20:56]  So if you get a good knockout, they might give you a bonus.
[00:20:58]  And at the time, I was like just getting my foot in the door with the UFC.
[00:21:02]  And, you know, 50 grand was like life-changing money for me.
[00:21:06]  And before I got to the UFC, I was fighting on local shows.
[00:21:09]  I had three kids by the time I was 25.
[00:21:12]  Yeah.
[00:21:12]  You've got three boys, right?
[00:21:13]  I got three boys, yeah, yeah.
[00:21:15]  And a wife and house and all that stuff.
[00:21:18]  And I felt, maybe people didn't say it as such, but I felt like a lot of outside pressure of like, why is Tom still messing about with this MMA stuff?

=== UFC Bonuses and Jake Paul (08:43) ===

[00:21:27]  Why does he not like go and get a job and actually support his family?
[00:21:31]  So for moments like that, it was just like I was like solidified that this is what I was supposed to do.
[00:21:38]  This is the way I'm going to make money.
[00:21:39]  This is the way I'm going to provide for my family.
[00:21:41]  And this is how I'm going to, yeah, just look after my family, really.
[00:21:45]  That's all I ever wanted to do was do what I love and look after my family.
[00:21:48]  We've got a clip when you won a big fight and you dedicated it to your dad, Andy.
[00:21:52]  Let's take a look at this.
[00:21:53]  I'm here with the winner, Tom Aspinall.
[00:21:56]  An incredibly emotional moment for you.
[00:21:59]  An amazing moment for you.
[00:22:01]  What a sensational victory.
[00:22:02]  Tell us what is going through your mind right now.
[00:22:05]  I've worked so hard over the years.
[00:22:07]  And this man right here, my father, has worked harder than anybody.
[00:22:10]  So this belly's dedicated to my father.
[00:22:19]  Special moment.
[00:22:20]  Yeah, that was great.
[00:22:20]  That was great.
[00:22:22]  That was obviously like winning a UFC title.
[00:22:26]  But I think I was extra emotional for that one because the opponent I was fighting first of all was, like I say, just killing everybody, just knocking everyone stiff, which is not ideal.
[00:22:35]  You know, you're sat in the change rooms thinking, oh, this is not great.
[00:22:38]  And he was big.
[00:22:39]  He's a big dude, yeah.
[00:22:40]  Big, scary Russian guy.
[00:22:43]  So there was that.
[00:22:44]  There was also the fact I didn't really train for the fight.
[00:22:47]  I took it on two weeks notice.
[00:22:48]  I didn't know if the fight was going to happen because I didn't have a US visa.
[00:22:52]  Also, like the second day of training, I injured my back.
[00:22:55]  So I basically didn't train for the fight at all.
[00:22:57]  So it was just like the relief of everything.
[00:23:00]  Yeah, obviously, like I said.
[00:23:01]  I mean, you hit him hard on the side of the head, and he just basically went down like a sack of spuds.
[00:23:07]  And then you got on him to pound him, but it was no point.
[00:23:10]  The referee just it was all over.
[00:23:12]  Yeah.
[00:23:13]  To take down a guy of that ability and danger, frankly, in such an emphatic fashion.
[00:23:19]  I mean, that made the whole UFC world wake up and go, all right, this guy's special.
[00:23:24]  Yeah, I think, like you say, that people weren't expecting such a big guy like that to false.
[00:23:29]  And when guys that size fall, it's heavy.
[00:23:31]  You know what I mean?
[00:23:32]  You can feel the octagon shape when they fall.
[00:23:35]  So, yeah, just a big moment for me.
[00:23:37]  And I was massively overlooked in that fight.
[00:23:39]  No one gave me a chance at the time.
[00:23:41]  He was just unbeatable.
[00:23:44]  Everyone just thought he was unbeatable.
[00:23:46]  And I was able to go and do that on, like, say, show.
[00:23:48]  Would you be tempted to do what Francis and Ghani has done and get in, have a few boxing fights or not?
[00:23:53]  Tyson Fury wanted to take you on.
[00:23:55]  Would you?
[00:23:56]  Well, me and Tyson are friends, first of all.
[00:23:58]  So, yeah.
[00:23:58]  I've known Tyson for a long time.
[00:24:00]  You have a Sparblene?
[00:24:01]  Yes, Barbara.
[00:24:03]  Tyson actually helped me out a lot in my career with the hands, but not just with the hands, with the mental aspects as well.
[00:24:09]  Tyson's a great guy.
[00:24:11]  He is very strong on the mental aspects.
[00:24:13]  What did he tell you?
[00:24:15]  Just a lot of stuff that we just previously talked about, about enjoying yourself, embracing the moment, because I used to put a lot of pressure on myself.
[00:24:20]  And don't get me wrong, the pressure's still there, but it was more just treat it for what it is, treat it for a sport.
[00:24:26]  It's not life or death in there.
[00:24:28]  It can be.
[00:24:28]  Of course, it can be.
[00:24:30]  People have died in the ring.
[00:24:31]  So can cross in the street.
[00:24:33]  Right.
[00:24:33]  You know what I mean?
[00:24:34]  You don't stiffen up every time you cross the street and stress out about it, or at least I don't.
[00:24:38]  If you and Tyson did fight, who would win?
[00:24:40]  In what boxing?
[00:24:41]  Or MMA?
[00:24:42]  Well, MMA, I assume you guys would win.
[00:24:44]  Well, yeah, I mean, if I'd be...
[00:24:45]  But in boxing, he would beat me.
[00:24:48]  Would he?
[00:24:48]  Yeah.
[00:24:48]  He's a boxer.
[00:24:49]  He's a boxer, I wouldn't, especially.
[00:24:50]  You've got a big punch.
[00:24:51]  I've got a big, well, I've got a punch of chance, as did Nganu, but I think that skill for skill, he's been boxing for, how old is he?
[00:24:59]  He's quite a bit older than me.
[00:25:00]  I think he's like 36, 37.
[00:25:02]  He's been boxing for, what's that?
[00:25:03]  30 years?
[00:25:04]  Yeah.
[00:25:06]  Punching is just a small part of it.
[00:25:07]  I went to see McGregor Mayweather in Vegas actually with the two of my sons.
[00:25:11]  And you could tell really that Mayweather was toying with him.
[00:25:15]  Yeah.
[00:25:15]  I mean, he'd only go a few rounds, but I think he could have finished that a lot earlier.
[00:25:19]  The technical expertise was simply, it was just too much in that one discipline.
[00:25:24]  For those who don't know exactly what you can do, how many different things can you do?
[00:25:29]  Okay, so...
[00:25:31]  Boxing, obviously.
[00:25:31]  You can obviously punch each other.
[00:25:34]  You can elbow each other.
[00:25:35]  Yeah.
[00:25:37]  But in terms of the actual jujitsu you're doing.
[00:25:39]  Okay, so that's almost like limitless at this point.
[00:25:43]  So when it first started, it was like jujitsu, wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, or tie boxing, whatever discipline.
[00:25:52]  Maybe like taekwondo, karate.
[00:25:55]  They're just like basic forms of martial arts that are all linked together.
[00:26:00]  But now, in my opinion, you can't treat it like different martial arts.
[00:26:05]  It has to be.
[00:26:06]  MMA is a sport of its own now.
[00:26:08]  You have to be able to do everything really well.
[00:26:10]  And if you don't, you're going to get exposed.
[00:26:12]  What's your strongest thing, do you think?
[00:26:15]  Doing everything really well together.
[00:26:16]  The whole thing.
[00:26:17]  I'm not the best boxer in the world.
[00:26:19]  I'm not the best grappler in the world.
[00:26:20]  I'm not the best wrestler in the world.
[00:26:22]  I've not got the best fitness in the world.
[00:26:23]  I'm not the strongest guy in the world.
[00:26:25]  But put it all together.
[00:26:27]  And as a collective, I do that as good as anybody.
[00:26:31]  What did you make of the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight?
[00:26:35]  Did you watch it?
[00:26:36]  I left after five rounds.
[00:26:37]  Did you?
[00:26:38]  Yeah.
[00:26:38]  Why?
[00:26:40]  I just don't want to see Mike Tyson getting beat up off Jake Paul.
[00:26:43]  It just really doesn't interest me.
[00:26:45]  I bought into the whole thing.
[00:26:46]  I was actually in New York at the time.
[00:26:48]  And I had some friends watching at a bar.
[00:26:51]  So I thought, yeah, I'll go and watch it.
[00:26:52]  It'd be like a good little outing.
[00:26:55]  Once I see Mike Tyson walk into the ring, he just looked.
[00:26:59]  He didn't seem right.
[00:27:00]  No, he just looked like he didn't want to be there.
[00:27:01]  And he also is obviously older.
[00:27:05]  And Jake Paul's like, you know, he's in great shape.
[00:27:08]  He's throwing them big punches in.
[00:27:10]  I was just like, oh, I just don't really want to watch this.
[00:27:12]  So I left.
[00:27:13]  Would you fight Jake Paul if you had the chance?
[00:27:18]  A lot of people would enjoy that.
[00:27:20]  I mean, everybody wants to.
[00:27:20]  I'd quite like to watch you fight.
[00:27:22]  Everybody wants to fight Jake Paul because they're all trying to get the money, aren't they?
[00:27:24]  Well, of course.
[00:27:25]  If you said, look, it's 20 million, let's get it on.
[00:27:27]  What would you say?
[00:27:28]  Well, 20 million is a whole lot of money.
[00:27:29]  Yeah.
[00:27:30]  Would you say yes?
[00:27:31]  Well, for me, honestly now, and I'm not trying to be like a USC bootlicker.
[00:27:37]  I want to unify the belts more than anything else.
[00:27:40]  That even comes in.
[00:27:41]  But down the line, if you've got a chance to say that.
[00:27:43]  Well, down the line, if we're talking about 20 million.
[00:27:46]  How long would it last if you fought him in a ring?
[00:27:48]  Jake Paul.
[00:27:49]  Well, I'm a lot bigger than Jake Paul.
[00:27:50]  I know.
[00:27:52]  Give me a few seconds, minutes?
[00:27:54]  I'd probably take a few rounds, I think, but I'm not.
[00:27:57]  How long before you knock him out?
[00:27:58]  This is not me trying to call out Jake Paul because I don't want to.
[00:28:00]  I'm going to call him out.
[00:28:01]  I don't want to call Jake.
[00:28:02]  Jimmy Lollock.
[00:28:02]  I don't know.
[00:28:03]  I don't want to.
[00:28:04]  Every part of you is thinking, I want to suck him.
[00:28:07]  I don't mind Jake Paul.
[00:28:08]  I don't mind him.
[00:28:09]  No?
[00:28:09]  No, I think he's all right.
[00:28:10]  But if he's watching this and he's thinking, I could take him.
[00:28:14]  I don't think that he thinks he can take me.
[00:28:19]  I think you would absolutely pulverise him.
[00:28:22]  Yeah, well, I do.
[00:28:23]  That's what I mean.
[00:28:24]  I don't think it would go one round.
[00:28:26]  Do you?
[00:28:26]  Really?
[00:28:27]  He might do.
[00:28:28]  I don't know.
[00:28:29]  I don't know.
[00:28:29]  You took out Sergei in one round.
[00:28:30]  I've not studied Jake Paul, believe it or not.
[00:28:33]  He's not someone I watch in my spare time, to be honest.
[00:28:37]  Your family, I mean, what do your kids make of this?
[00:28:39]  How old are the boys now?
[00:28:40]  So my oldest kid's eight.
[00:28:42]  Yeah.
[00:28:42]  And I've got five-year-old twins.
[00:28:44]  Yeah.
[00:28:44]  What do they make of what dad does?
[00:28:47]  I mean, when you're five, it's hard to, you know, I think that they're still a little bit young.
[00:28:52]  But my oldest kid now, he's starting to realize that people who he's friends with think it's cool.
[00:28:58]  So he thinks it's cool now.
[00:29:00]  But I think they're just kind of used to it, really.
[00:29:02]  They don't really know any different.
[00:29:03]  So for them, it's just me going off to work, I think.
[00:29:05]  It's not.
[00:29:05]  One of your boys, I think, has autism.
[00:29:07]  That's right.
[00:29:07]  That's great.
[00:29:08]  How have you found that as a family to deal with?
[00:29:10]  Challenging.
[00:29:10]  Yeah.
[00:29:11]  Of course.
[00:29:11]  Still navigating through it.
[00:29:13]  Still.
[00:29:14]  So my main goal in life, other than obviously the USC stuff, is just try and get as much awareness with autism as possible.
[00:29:22]  I think there's a lot of families in the UK.
[00:29:23]  I can only speak for the UK because that's where I'm from.
[00:29:25]  That's where I live.
[00:29:26]  That are struggling.
[00:29:27]  People haven't got diagnosis.
[00:29:29]  People are on waiting lists that are three, four years long.
[00:29:31]  People have no direction of where to go, who to turn to, what to do with the kids.
[00:29:35]  And it's just a massive struggle.
[00:29:37]  So when I'm retired from fighting, that is my mission.
[00:29:40]  I mean, it's my mission now, but when I can dedicate all my time to it, that is my mission to try and get as many people diagnosed and helping as many families as possible.
[00:29:51]  And if I said to you, right, you can knock out John Jones and become the undisputed heavyweight champion of USC.
[00:30:00]  Yeah.
[00:30:00]  And you've knocked out the goat and you just destroy him in one round.
[00:30:05]  Or you can have the best sex of your life.
[00:30:09]  The best what?
[00:30:10]  Sex of your life.

=== Family Struggles in the UK (02:04) ===

[00:30:11]  Oh, I'll take the knockout, all day.
[00:30:13]  Absolutely.
[00:30:15]  Absolutely.
[00:30:16]  And would your wife, Justina, be pleased with that answer?
[00:30:20]  She would rather.
[00:30:22]  What's her involvement in this?
[00:30:24]  I'm presuming she'd be the one you'd be able to do.
[00:30:25]  Yeah, she'd be all right with it.
[00:30:27]  She'd be all right.
[00:30:28]  I once asked Donald Trump if he would give up sex for a year if he got 10 billion.
[00:30:34]  And he replied, no, no, no, not for that.
[00:30:35]  So he said, how much?
[00:30:36]  I was in 10 billion.
[00:30:38]  I thought he said million.
[00:30:38]  He said, oh, for 10 billion, I would.
[00:30:40]  He's getting on a bit now.
[00:30:42]  I don't know how his performances are looking.
[00:30:44]  I think we're talking about those performance-enhancing drugs that you were talking about earlier.
[00:30:48]  Maybe.
[00:30:50]  Once you've done the John Jones fight, which is clearly going to happen, it's going to be absolutely huge.
[00:30:54]  And I do want to walk out with you with a big union check around me as part of your entrepreneurial.
[00:30:59]  Love that.
[00:31:00]  Love it.
[00:31:00]  And Trump can be with Jones.
[00:31:02]  I'll be with you.
[00:31:02]  Love that.
[00:31:03]  We've got agreement?
[00:31:04]  Yeah, we're agreeing.
[00:31:05]  Yeah.
[00:31:05]  But before we do that, we've got a punching machine in the other studio.
[00:31:10]  Everybody loves them punching machines.
[00:31:11]  Yeah.
[00:31:12]  I'm very good at them.
[00:31:13]  There's actually a viral clip of me in the street, actually, doing one of these things and smashing seven bells out of it.
[00:31:19]  I'm not saying I'm stronger than you, but I wouldn't mind testing the theory.
[00:31:24]  There's no chance that you can punch harder than me.
[00:31:26]  No disrespect.
[00:31:28]  You know what?
[00:31:29]  I like a cooker.
[00:31:30]  Let's go and do it.
[00:31:31]  Come on.
[00:31:31]  Come on then.
[00:31:32]  Follow me.
[00:31:34]  Okay, we're in our other studio here.
[00:31:36]  I'm obviously with Tom Aspinault, who's supposed to be the strongest, most dangerous guy alive.
[00:31:41]  Well, so he says, with the hardest punch, apparently, in the world.
[00:31:45]  All right.
[00:31:45]  Maybe he does.
[00:31:47]  But I know.
[00:31:48]  I mean, feel these guns.
[00:31:51]  Yeah, I need a bit of work, mate.
[00:31:53]  Need some work.
[00:31:54]  Listen, Ronaldo called these abs the best he'd ever seen.
[00:31:57]  Well, I think you should have his sight check.
[00:31:59]  But anyway, we've got this punching machine.
[00:32:01]  It's the official talk sport one.
[00:32:03]  I'm going to go first, punch a living daylight out of it.
[00:32:06]  And if in the unlikely event that Mr. Absinall, Aspinall comes anywhere near it, we'll alert the media.
[00:32:13]  I don't think he's going to.
[00:32:14]  This could be the end of his career.

=== Testing the Hardest Punch (01:30) ===

[00:32:16]  Right.
[00:32:16]  Should we do this?
[00:32:17]  Let's do it.
[00:32:18]  Made a hardest mail.
[00:32:19]  Good luck with a blazer.
[00:32:20]  That might take a little rip.
[00:32:22]  Don't you worry about it.
[00:32:23]  Literally up a bit for that.
[00:32:24]  Don't you worry about this.
[00:32:24]  Right, bring it down.
[00:32:26]  Whoa.
[00:32:29]  Right, what are we doing?
[00:32:30]  A straight or a hook?
[00:32:32]  That's important.
[00:32:32]  What's the difference?
[00:32:33]  Well, the straight would be obviously straight.
[00:32:35]  Like that.
[00:32:35]  Yeah.
[00:32:36]  I don't know.
[00:32:36]  And the hook would be a bit more...
[00:32:38]  What was your elbow?
[00:32:39]  No, no, just bring the arm out a bit this way.
[00:32:42]  What do you mean?
[00:32:43]  Just show me like...
[00:32:44]  Like, you would either go that way with a straight punch.
[00:32:47]  Yeah.
[00:32:47]  Or like a hook would be a bit more, don't you?
[00:32:51]  Whatever you want.
[00:32:52]  You set the rules.
[00:32:52]  Which one are you least good at?
[00:32:54]  I'm all right at both.
[00:32:55]  I think I'm all right at both.
[00:32:58]  Right.
[00:32:59]  You ready?
[00:33:01]  Okay, here we go.
[00:33:02]  Just back off.
[00:33:04]  The whole machine might go over.
[00:33:12]  It weren't bad, actually.
[00:33:13]  I was expecting worse.
[00:33:14]  I was expecting worse.
[00:33:16]  Come on, let me go.
[00:33:16]  That wasn't bad.
[00:33:20]  I'd say that's very competitive.
[00:33:21]  Not bad.
[00:33:22]  I think I've got it, though.
[00:33:23]  Very competitive.
[00:33:23]  I think I've got it in the tank there.
[00:33:27]  There was no run-up or anything, was it?
[00:33:28]  It was just...
[00:33:29]  No, just bang.
[00:33:38]  Still got it.
[00:33:39]  I've still got it.
[00:33:40]  Holy shit.
[00:33:43]  Thanks, mate.
[00:33:44]  You know what?
[00:33:45]  You actually are quite strong, aren't