"I felt like a small-time guy" - Tom Aspinall shares experience sparring with Tyson Fury

Tom Aspinall is set to take on Marcin Tybura in the main event of UFC London this weekend, 364 days after his last fight where he severely injured his knee against Curtis Blaydes.

Aspinall is part of a new era of MMA 'hybrid heavyweights' who can move with the speed of a light heavyweight whilst maintaining the size and power of a heavyweight fighter. The Mancunian is a highly touted prospect who has shown himself to have a complete MMA game.

Ahead of his main event showdown, Tom Aspinall was interviewed by British sports publication JOE. During the conversation, the heavyweight contender detailed his experience sparring with WBC heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury.

Aspinall has one professional boxing fight on his record, which he won via first-round KO. During his interview, he revealed that he had aspirations of entering the world of boxing before ultimately choosing MMA.

Furthermore, he spoke about his experience training boxing with the Fury family:

"That was great. The Fury family are awesome people. Peter Fury, who was coaching Tyson at the time, absolute genius. He's been a big part in my career, I still speak to him... I felt like a small-time guy. We had g*ddam Tyson Fury who was world champion at the time, I was a nobody at the time, no one knew who I was. But they were very nice to me, Tyson is a great guy."

Watch the interview below from 21:25:

Tom Aspinall hopes to convince Jon Jones to stay around long enough to face him

Jon Jones returned to the octagon after a three-year hiatus to defeat Ciryl Gane via first-round submission at UFC 285. 'Bones' is now scheduled to face Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 later this year, and he has indicated that it could be his last fight.

However, Tom Aspinall hopes to convince Jones to stick around for a few more years by putting on several eye-catching performances.

Aspinall will face Marcin Tybura in the main event of UFC London this weekend, where the Brit will have his first opportunity to give 'Bones' something to pay attention to.

Tom Aspinall appeared in front of the media ahead of his fight this weekend and said:

"My goal in the future moving forward is not only to win, but I want to excite Jon Jones... At this point he probably doesn't know who I am. He probably doesn't, and that's fine. But I want him to watch me fight in the next few fights and think, 'I need to stick around for this guy.'"

Watch the video below:

Tom Aspinall wants to "excite" Jon Jones with his performances and book the "dream fight" 💭 #UFCLondon

"I want him to watch me fight in the next few fights and think, ‘I need to stick around for this guy. This guy deserves [to fight me].’" pic.twitter.com/ESwEOgUJTv