Andy Aspinall wants his son to leave the fight game wealthy. Tom Aspinall’s father recently mapped out how he wants the UFC heavyweight champion to map out his career, including a foray into professional boxing.
Tom Aspinall is training for his first undisputed title defense against former interim champion Ciryl Gane. Their fight headlines UFC 321 on Oct. 25. Andy Aspinall, Tom Aspinall’s head coach, wants his son back in the Octagon in January and headlining an England card in the near future. After that, boxing’s big one-off paydays resonate with Andy Aspinall more than what he thinks the UFC would part with.
“If he’s not bothered about the money, I’d love him to have a very highly paid boxing match for the money, “Andy Aspinall said on Tom Aspinall’s YouTube channel. “The money’s there, and I don’t see why somebody as talented as Tom shouldn’t have a piece of that money when the boxers are getting a hundred times more, more than a hundred times more.
“The UFC ain’t paying that type of money. If they would, it would be great and he could get the money, but I think these one percent of people who are very, very good should get paid.”
Boxing payouts are typically much higher than UFC payouts at the elite box-office level. Francis Ngannou famously vacated the UFC heavyweight championship and pursued major paydays against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.
Andy Aspinall claimed that his son is underpaid. He argued that Tom Aspinall, despite being the best heavyweight mixed martial artist in the world, makes significantly less than some American soccer players.
“An American footballer, who we’ve talked to when we’re in America, he’s earning a tiny fraction of what they’re earning, and he’s one of the best in the world at doing what he does and not getting paid enough,” Andy Aspinall said. “And it’s very dangerous, so when he’s got enough to get out of it, I’d say get out of it.”
