Tom Aspinall is feeling well-equipped to take his career to the next level upon his eventual UFC return.
Aspinall, the UFC heavyweight champion, has been stuck in MMA limbo while recovering from eye injuries he suffered this past October in his no-contest against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321. Having undergone numerous scans and procedures to restore his eyes to health, Aspinall, 32, surprised many last week by aligning with Eddie Hearn and signing with the newly-formed Matchroom Talent Agency.
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Speaking on “The Ariel Helwani Show,” Aspinall explained why he chose to sign with Hearn as the UK-based promoter becomes increasingly entangled in a public feud with UFC CEO Dana White.
“Something about Eddie, and something about [Matchroom CEO] Frank [Smith] and the whole team — just sometimes when you look across from somebody and spend real time with them, you just get a good feeling from them,” Aspinall told Uncrowned. “And those are definitely my kind of people. I just feel like instantly we were on the same wavelength. Instantly, the trust was there. I don’t know what it is. I’m sure you’ve experienced it before. Sometimes in life, you meet people and you just click. I felt like we all just clicked, and it works.”
The signing of Aspinall to Matchroom comes at a wildly compelling time despite the champion’s absence. With TKO’s Zuffa Boxing endeavor in full swing, helmed by White as its frontman, plenty of verbal shots have already been traded between the two promoters. White even went as far as challenging Hearn to a boxing match at Las Vegas’ Meta Apex.
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Zuffa Boxing ignited the domino effect by signing longtime Matchroom talent Conor Benn to a reported one-fight, $15 million deal, stealing away a 29-year-old star who was one of the talents most closely associated with Hearn’s boxing brand. As a result, at least from an outsider’s perspective, the announcement of Aspinall’s alignment with Hearn had all the makings of a timely counterpunch.
UFC Hall of Famer and friend of Aspinall’s, Michael Bisping, recently voiced his concerns on the matter, worrying that Aspinall is nothing more than a pawn in Hearn and White’s promotional rivalry. Aspinall admitted he was initially worried about that same thing.
“I don’t worry about that anymore,” Aspinall said. “I feel like people from the outside, whether it be Bisping or anybody else, they don’t know the ins and outs of the conversations that we’ve had, obviously. And I obviously feel comfortable with it. I’m in a position in my career where I don’t have to sign anything if I don’t want. Obviously, I wanted to sign this; otherwise, I wouldn’t have signed it. So yeah, very happy with it all, mate. Very happy to be part of Matchroom, very happy to be working with Eddie, working with Frank, working with the rest of the team.
“This was just about making my team bigger as far as media and commercial value and stuff like that. We’ve just got a really, really small team, and I wanted to widen that, to grow that. I believe that Eddie and the guys at Matchroom are the guys to do it with.”
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In the grand scheme, the combination of Benn’s deal and UFC’s new $7.7 billion broadcast deal with Paramount has arguably shaken up MMA’s financial landscape more than it’s been in many, many years.
Benn’s one-off payday — to compete on a non-Zuffa Boxing card in a non-title fight against Regis Prograis on April 11 — is the deal dream for any MMA fighter.
Aspinall noted that although he has joined forces with Matchroom to reach a similar financial status, the champ’s father — Andy Aspinall — will remain his manager. However, he explained, Hearn and Smith are certainly in Aspinall’s corner now for potential negotiating tag-ins, if and when they are needed.
As of Monday afternoon, Aspinall said he still had yet to hear anything from the UFC — from White or otherwise — since he signed with Hearn’s agency.
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“There’s always been a narrative, whether it be public or private, between boxing and MMA and pay,” Aspinall said. “I think it’s well enough publicized that MMA fighters do not earn as much as boxers when it comes to actually fighting people. Look, as MMA fighters, that’s what we signed up for. We knew that from the beginning and that’s all good. But just with all the recent stuff that’s coming out and the conversations that I’ve been having with Eddie and the team, I just realized that there’s so much — like, my earning potential is so much more than what I’m making in the UFC, that I want to explore it and maximize my time in the career as much as I can.
“When [Hearn and Smith] were looking through my contract, they were just giggling. It’s like I told them a joke or something. But like I said, that’s what we signed up for. It’s not anybody else’s fault. That’s exactly what we signed up for as UFC fighters. I ain’t complaining about it. I just want to make as much money as I can while I’m here. That’s why I’m doing this whole thing.
“There’s a lot more opportunities out there than we think.”
Tom Aspinall is ready to take his career to the next level with the support of Eddie Hearn and Matchroom.
(Jordan Pettitt – PA Images via Getty Images)
Outside of any deeper business workings, the UFC heavyweight champion is also making this move at an interesting time personally. It’s realistically still just the start of Aspinall’s reign. The Brit was promoted from interim champion to undisputed champion in the wake of Jon Jones’ retirement last summer, only to suffer his eye injuries against Gane in his first title defense. Aspinall was already shelved for more than a year while healthy; now he couldn’t be more eager to return. But not at the cost of his health.
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“This is the way I look at it, right? And every fighter is different,” Aspinall said. “Some guys, they just don’t care if they win or lose. They just want to fight. They’re happy that they’re getting paid for it. And that’s great. If you’re cut from that cloth, good for you. But with me, I want to make as much money as I possibly can make. So I’m exploring every option that I can do. I think that if you’re not doing that, then you should be, quite frankly.
“I put my own health on the line for other people’s entertainment. And I want compensating for that as much as possible, whether that be inside the Octagon [or out]. Like I said, with the fight, I signed up for that, so I know exactly how much I’m getting paid. But if I can make more money doing other stuff as well, I will absolutely do that.”
Considering Hearn’s background and lengthy history in boxing, it’s natural to wonder whether Aspinall is mulling a transition to the ring. However, Aspinall reassured that he’s solely focused on his MMA career, and won’t consider any possibilities in boxing until much later in his professional run.
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For now, the first order of business remains a full recovery, which Aspinall hopes is near. Though he’s not yet medically cleared to train in the gym with contact, Aspinall said his eyes are improving and that doctors are happy with his progress. A scan from last week indicated further movement in the right direction.
After doubts initially crept in about whether or not he’d ever be able to fight again, Aspinall is now confident he will indeed compete in 2026.
“There was a time when things were all up in the air because we had some complications with [my eyes], but everything now is moving good, and I’m feeling a lot better,” he said.
“I can really see the difference in the way the vision is, because the vision is obviously something you use every second of every day. So I’m feeling really good about it at the moment, mate.”
