Tom Aspinall sets sights on two UFC legends after becoming world champion

UFC interim world heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall is itching to fight either Jon Jones or Stipe Miocic next, but admits he is in a race against the clock to make it happen.

Aspinall became Britain's first world heavyweight champion on November 12 when he upset the odds to beat Sergei Pavlovich at New York City's Madison Square Garden. The 30-year-old had been written off by critics prior to the fight after being called in as a late replacement for the injured Jones.

Speaking to MEN Sport, Aspinall admitted preparation for the bout in New York was a test of his mentality as well as his ability. "The UFC just called me, obviously the time difference between Vegas and the UK, they called me at like 6am and I was asleep at the time and missed the call," the Atherton fighter said.

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"When I called them back at first they didn’t tell me about the fight, they just said: ‘Will you be ready to fight in two weeks?’ I was like: ‘Yeah I can be, what is going on?’ And they said they couldn’t tell me right now.

"I was actually going to go on holiday two days later and I said: ‘Listen, I need to know what is going on as soon as possible because I am going to have to cancel this holiday I am going on,’ so they just said they would let me know tomorrow at the latest. That was the Monday, I was going on holiday on the Thursday but they told me the following day about Jon Jones’ injury and I started training on the Wednesday.

"Every fight is tough mentally even if it is an easy fight. There is a lot going on, there is a lot of pressure on you especially when you are coming in in really bad circumstances like I had. I was injured, I