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UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Tom Aspinall will defend the gold in a rematch against Curtis Blaydes in the co-main event of UFC 304.
The card will be taking place in Manchester, England and Aspinall admits that he tried to get UFC officials to change the start time for the event, which is taking place early in the morning in Manchester, which will accommodate the North American UFC fans.
“No apologies,” Aspinall told Submission Radio (transcript via Alexander K. Lee of MMA Fighting). “I don’t expect an apology either, this is the UFC we’re dealing with. I just kind of put the feelers out there a little bit, to see like, this is a bit of a shitter for me and the other fighters and the U.K. fans who want to come watch it live. The thing is, I’ve got all kinds of friends coming. I was with my friend today and he was saying, he’s got child care for the night, but obviously the show is going to finish at 6 a.m. So he’s essentially going to have to stay up all night and then he’s only got childcare until, like, 9 a.m., so he’s going to get literally an hour or two of sleep in there. Just stuff like that.
“I was putting the feelers out, ‘Listen, is there any chance we can switch that?’ And they were just like, ‘Nope. Absolutely not.’ ... There was no play on that at all. Just straight-up, no, that was it.”
An exact start time has yet to be announced for the show, which is headlined by UFC Welterweight Champion Leon Edwards defending against Belal Muhammad.
Aspinall, who lost to Blaydes in their first encounter due to injury, admits things seem a little weird heading into the rematch.
“There’s some weird stuff going on with it and as someone who has traveled a fair bit and been on different times, I know that it can affect you,” Aspinall said. “Definitely. So obviously I want it to affect me as little as possible. I’m the type of guy that I’ll do everything I can to win, everything I can, and if that means changing my sleep time to whichever way I can to the best advantage, I absolutely will do. But I don’t know what that looks like at this point.”
