TOM ASPINALL will be at his career heaviest for his short-notice crack at UFC gold.
The Wigan warrior will look to become only the third Brit to hold a title in MMA‘s top promotion early on Sunday morning in the co-main event of UFC 295 at Madison Square Garden.
Aspinall, 30, will bid to win the interim heavyweight title – which was brought into play due to an injury to undisputed champ Jon Jones – against Sergei Pavlovich.
The pair took part in a cordial but somewhat ice-cold staredown in the shadows of MSG on Thursday.
And all that remained for the duo to finalise their clash was the small matter of making weight.
Neither man had any issue making the championship limit of 265lbs at Friday’s early weigh-ins.
Dad of three Aspinall tipped the scales first, coming in at a career-heavy 261.6lbs.
Russian behemoth Pavlovich, who looks as if he’s carved out of stone, was one of the stragglers in the two hour-window – coming in at 259.8lbs
Aspinall has had less than TWO WEEKS to prepare for his first crack at UFC gold.
And he revealed this week that he was a day away from jetting off on a lads’ holiday before getting the call for the life-changing opportunity.
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He told TNT Sports: “Do you know what? I got the call early in the morning, so I was sleeping.
“And it was off someone really high up in the UFC, not Dana White but someone really high up, who’s never called me before.
“And I could hear my phone vibrating on the side of me like this and I was like, ‘That’s weird someone ringing me at that time.’
“So I picked it up and as I picked it up I saw the person’s name and then it went off, you know like it stopped ringing.
“I thought, ‘Right, I’m just going to go back to sleep it’s 6am, I’ve got a few hours.’
“And then obviously my mind starts going and as soon as my mind started going, I was like, ‘Someone’s pulling out of New York here.’
“I just knew it straight away.
“So I rung him back and he said, ‘Listen, I’m not going to tell you what’s happened because it’s not for sure yet. I’m going to let you know in the next 24 hours.’
“And I was supposed to be going on holiday the next day.
“So I said, ‘Listen, you’re going to have to let me know because I’m going on holiday. I’m going away tomorrow!’
“Anyway he rung me back at 4am the following night and he told me what’s going on.
“He said, ‘Jon Jones is injured, Stipe doesn’t want to fight anybody else bar Jon Jones so you and Big Pavers on MSG.’ and I said, ‘I’m in.'”
