Having made his UFC debut in July 2020, Wigan born Tom Aspinall has become one of the most exciting British prospects within the sport in recent years.

The 30-year-old's tale from Cage Warriors to the Ultimate Fighting Championship is one of the toughest hard-luck stories in the business. With a perfect record of 5-0 since his switch the company owned by Dana White, Aspinall was presented the opportunity to headline a main event at the 02 in London.

Having only got out of the first round once in his opening five bouts - including four Performance of the Night bonuses - American Curtis Blaydes was the man standing in his way. However, just 15 seconds into the encounter, Aspinall suffered a devastating knee injury that didn’t just end his winning streak, but threatened to derail his career.

“Depressing, horrendous. Absolutely horrendous. It made me want to quit the sport for a little while," he told Adam Catterall, courtesy of Full Circle with bet365.

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“For a couple of days (after the injury) I didn't want to carry on. I fell out with everything and everyone for a little. It’s just not very nice mate, it's just horrendous lay on the floor on your back in front of 22,000 of your own fans with a knee that is numb, locked up, being unable to move it and knowing that I was supposed to go away.

"I was supposed to go and see family in Poland for about a month, I was going to do a little tour of Poland see family and friends and everything, the Mrs was already out there with the kids and I had to cancel that. I had to go down to London and get surgery, recover for a year, and it's not ideal.

"I thought I'm going to get a big old win bonus and go and enjoy myself in Poland and see the family and friends for like a month It wasn't meant to be, but to be honest I'm really grateful that it happened because I'm way different now in a more positive light. I'm really happy with everything.”

Having spent 364 days away from the Octagon, Aspinall made his return against Marcin Tybura in July in the same arena he suffered that crushing knee injury. And in true fashion, the Brit made light work of his opponent, recording another first-round knockout and earning yet another Performance of the Night bonus.

And Aspinall believes that his injury gave him perspective and how to change his previous training regime, insisting that this new version of himself is on the right path to become the best heavyweight fighter in the business.

“When I got injured I decided listen, I'm all in on this stuff now and I'm completely all in. Everything's right, the training is going to be right, the people around me are going to be 100% working towards where I'm going, my diet's going to be right, my preparation's going to be right, my sleep's going to be right. Everything.

“Everything that I can do, because if I do take a loss along the way, I can at least look myself in the mirror and go listen, I tried my absolute best and I came up short. I honestly think, cameras on or off, no matter who I'm talking to and I'm not saying it for hype, I'm not saying it to big myself up; I honestly think I can be the best heavyweight in the world.

“Yeah it's 2.0. It is way different, so I never wanted to get on the mic and be like “I'm back” because I don't feel the same as I was before the injury. I feel like a different person and I know that sounds like I'm over-exaggerating it or something, but I feel like mentally and physically I just rebuilt myself so much in that year. The stuff that I did then, and the people that I was around then, I just don't relate to them anymore. I'm just different now.”

Up next, a fight would likely have been against the winner of Ciryl Gane and Sergey Spivac (which Gane won with a second-round TKO) or Sergei Pavlovich, where he would then hope to fight the winner of Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic to for the UFC heavyweight title. But a classic hard-luck story may have a fairytale ending for Aspinall.

With Jones out for the best part of a year with injury, Aspinall has been shoehorned into an interim title fight with Pavlovich at UFC 295 on November 11. The 30-year-old is one of the top heavyweight fighters in the division, and believes himself, along with Pavlovich and Gane are ruling the roost in the UFC.

"My rise has been fast you see, even though I've had a year off it's been quite fast. It is hard to accept because I'm really healthy now, I’m on a comeback and I'm on a roll, everything's good. I've got a lot of hype behind me and it’s like let's do something. At the same time it’s hard.

“Yeah, it's all political. It's political at the top and you have to be smart about stuff and I understand that. I want the heavyweight title and I believe there’s two guys. He's around the same age as me, early 30’s. Not even in our prime; me v Pavlovich, people like that. Me, Pavlovich and Gane.”

Despite focusing on his upcoming bout next weekend, Aspinall has reiterated his desire to fight a true great of the UFC, labelling it as his dream fight but insists that he is not convinced it will ever come to fruition.

“I'd love to fight Jon Jones, that is my dream fight. I would love that because he's one of my absolute heroes of the sport and yeah, I’d just love it. Do I believe it's going to happen? I believe in a lot of stuff in my career, and I also believe that me believing in it helps me get stuff too. I'm one of them weirdos who manifests things and if I set my intentions on something and believe in it strongly enough and work towards it, then everything's kind of going in the right path and it it's got more chance of happening. I do believe that.

“Do I believe Jon Jones is going to stick around and I'm going to get my dream fight with him? I don't know, I'm not 100% convinced that he's going to stick around to be honest with you.”