UFC 309 goes down on Saturday, November 16th from Madison Square Garden in New York City, and it features a heavyweight title showdown between current champ Jon Jones and greatest champ Stipe Miocic.
Unless something happens to one of them, in which case interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall is set to step in and fight on short notice. The British fighter has been the official backup since crushing Curtis Blaydes in a minute flat back in July, and he's been preparing for a fight, any fight.
"Usually I'm working to a game plan in training, because obviously I've got in mind my opponent who I'm going to fight and what their style brings to the table," he told Safest Casino Sites. "Whereas right now I can't really train for anybody because I don't know who I'm fighting and I don't know if I'm fighting."
"All I'm focusing on is just getting myself as physically ready as possible: getting myself fit, basically getting myself in fighting shape. As far as tactics and stuff -- and I'm a big tactics guy --- there isn't any, to be honest. I'm just focusing on me and my game as opposed to one of the other guys who I could potentially fight."
Aspinall also shared what his advice for Miocic would be if he were in the 42-year-old former champion's corner.
"I'd be looking for the knockout against Jon Jones, is what I'd be looking for with him," he said. "I'd be trying to push him back and use his size. It's not even like he can use the experience. They're both as experienced as one another, but I'd just be using my size on him, trying to push him back and knock him out. I think that Stipe Miocic has got big knockout power in comparison to Jon Jones. So I think he can knock him out."
"To be honest, with guys like Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic, it's very, very difficult to look at them and technically pick apart what they do wrong. It's very difficult. Jon Jones is one of the best to ever do it and so is Stipe. It's difficult, even for a guy like me who works an analyst job now and does this as a kind of second career, to look at these guys and be like, 'yeah, this is what they do wrong technically.' Ultimately, they don't do a lot wrong."
Fortunately, Aspinall has a tried and true strategy he employs that has worked pretty well for him thus far.
"My key to winning against not just these guys but anybody is I need to punch them as hard as I can in the face," he said. "It's well proven that if I hit somebody clean, they're going over. I've never hit somebody clean in my life and they've not gone over. That's my key to victory at all times."
The most likely route November 16th takes is that Jones and Miocic do battle as planned. Who wins, and what the winner does next, is the real question. Both men have straight up said they're intent on retiring, but UFC CEO Dana White has suggested that's just a negotiating road bump on the way to an inevitable unification bout against Aspinall.
If "Bones" wins and retires, Tom doesn't believe it hurts Jon's chances at being GOAT. That damage has already been done.
"There's always gonna be that guy though, isn't there, who you didn't fight and you retired because of?" Aspinall said. "I think that he wouldn't be the GOAT for other reasons. Failed drug tests, etcetera, that's just my opinion on it."