Braggadocious proclamations aside, Aspinall’s rehabilitation process seems to be coming along well. Since returning to light MMA training in September, Aspinall said he is incorporating more full-speed, full-contact work progressively, including “seven or eight” sparring sessions.
Although he feels “pretty confident” during sparring, he acknowledges the kind of work he has been doing and the work he’d need to do for a proper training camp are two different levels of intensity. He maintains his intentions to not rush back, especially until he feels sure about his repaired knee’s ability to take the damage sure to come in a fight. Still, though, good signs seem abundant in the Aspinall camp.
RELATED: Tom Aspinall On Injury Rehab And Timetable For His Return
“I feel like me and my coaches did a really good job of just listening to (the knee) really because I never wanted to rush to get back or anything like that,” he said. “We’re still not rushing, but I think we just really took it step by step because it’s not like one day I wasn’t kicking, and then the next day I was full sparring with kicks. It was like, we build our kicks back a little bit for a few minutes after every session, and then we just put it all that way until we could full-on spar with kicks to the knee and all that stuff. It’s been a slow process, and it still is a slow process, but I think we doing really well with it.”
He plans to attend UFC 286: Edwards vs Usman 3 in London, where he headlined both UFC events in the promotion’s long-awaited return to England, and where he is sure to get a big reception from the fans in the O2 Arena.