Tom Aspinall feeling ‘pretty scared’ of Sergei Pavlovich but says ‘fear gives me a superpower’

Tom Aspinall admits he’s feeling “pretty scared” of Sergei Pavlovich ahead of their heavyweight showdown at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

The pair go face-to-face in the Octagon as part of the UFC 295 card in New York, with the interim championship on the line.

Pavlovich has won 18 of his 19 fights, and holds the record for the longest streak of first round knockouts, with none of his first six fights getting past three minutes 52 seconds.

That makes the Russian a fearsome opponent, and Aspinall knows he is in for a tough night.

“He’s a scary guy,” concedes the 30-year old. “He’s definitely intimidating!

“But that being said, I do my best work when I’m scared. Fear is something I have a really good relationship with. It gives me a super power. Generally speaking, the more scared I am, the better I do in the fight.”

The 30-year old has a career record of 10 victories from 13 fights, with his most recent defeat coming at the hands of Curtis Blaydes in July 2022.

He returned to winning ways this summer with a TKO after just one minute 13 seconds against Marcin Tybura, before calling out heavyweight world champion Jon Jones.

Aspinall says he’s now ready to show everybody he can be the best heavyweight on the planet – and he won’t be satisfied with his career until he does.

“I don’t think you can look at Pavlovich’s game and be like ‘this is where he’s weak’. But the biggest issue he’s got fighting a guy like me, is there’s not another guy like me in the heavyweight division.

“There’s nobody who’s 6’5, 260kg, who moves like I move. He can get all the training partners in the world that he wants, but you can’t replicate a guy like me in the gym. Also, I’m not going to stand in the middle of the cage and have a shoot out with him. We’re going to see what happens.

“I’ll probably pause and reflect [on my journey to get to this point] when I retire. When Saturday’s done, it’ll be ‘when’s the next one’. That’s the way it works.

“When you stop and start thinking about what you’ve done so far, that’s when you start getting a bit comfortable.

“I’m not trying to be comfortable. I’m trying to be the best heavyweight walking the face of the earth. I’ll look back when I’ve retired. I’ll the kids, the grandkids and anybody who’ll listen how good I was, but right now I’m focused on the task at hand and that is obviously Saturday night.”

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