Tom Aspinall has Cristiano Ronaldo connection to thank for UFC London victory

Tom Aspinall landed an emphatic victory at UFC London and has Cristiano Ronaldo’s former surgeon to thank after recovering from a long-term injury.

The Atherton fighter was forced to wait almost a year to make his return to the O2 Arena. Any doubts that Aspinall may suffer from ‘ring rust’ due to his time away from the octagon were quickly washed away as the heavyweight contender took just 73 seconds to score a TKO win over Marcin Tybura, mapping out his path to a world title shot in his post-fight interview.

However, dreams of becoming a world champion seemed miles away last July, after landing a leg kick in the opening seconds of his fight with Curtis Blaydes, which inadvertently saw him tear his MCL, meniscus and damage his ACL. Faced with a long road to recovery, Aspinall turned to a top professional for advice.

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Speaking about his route back to full fitness last year, Aspinall told Midnite: “I got my surgery off the best surgeon in the UK. The top rehab guy in the UK. He used to be Cristiano Ronaldo’s rehab guy. He’s seriously up there in the rehab world and it feels great right now.

“I’ve had the bad knee for at least three years, maybe longer. There’s been a lot of stuff I’ve not been able to do. I’ve been getting through the fights obviously well. I’ve been getting through the training camps pretty well, for the most part. But maybe I got a bit too overconfident, maybe I gambled one time too many when I knew I had a knee injury.”

Aspinall blitzed his way through his first five UFC opponents, with only former heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski taking him to the second round. However, his rapid rise to becoming a headline fighter in the UK led him to