British Heavyweight Tom Aspinall has no concerns about being under-prepared as he counts down to a UFC title fight – despite accepting it on two weeks’ notice.

The Atherton star will co-headline UFC 295 at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York City this Sunday morning (UK time). While most fighters typically have training camps lasting several months, Aspinall was given just 17 days to prepare to face no.2-ranked Sergei Pavlovich.

But the 30-year-old has no fears as he looks to become only Britain’s third-ever champion in the UFC, the world’s premier mixed martial arts competition. “I’m feeling good, with the circumstances I’ve got, I’m feeling really good,” said Aspinall. “I did five, five-minute rounds today sparring, different guy every round which is not easily done, especially at heavyweight.”

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Aspinall replaces current heavyweight champion Jon Jones who suffered a nasty pectoral injury, ruling him out of his fight with Stipe Miocic. With Miocic refusing to face Pavlovich – the backup fighter for the event - on such short notice, Aspinall received a call at 4am to see if he would step up to the chance of becoming Britain’s first UFC heavyweight champion.

“I was shocked, to be honest,” he said. “I’ve never actually received a direct call from who called me before, so I knew it was something fight-related. It was something serious. I was totally in shock for a couple of days.”

Clitheroe’s Michael Bisping – the first-ever British UFC champion – also seized his opportunity to become champion on 17 days’ notice when he knocked out former champion Luke Rockhold in 2016. And the 44-year-old has been in touch to offer advice to his fellow Northerner.

“As soon as I found out that Tom had this fight, I texted him, ‘Tom, it’s not about the two weeks, you’ve been training for this moment since you were 15. Always remember that,’” said US-based Bisping, who will be back at Manchester Apollo in December for his ‘Tales from the Octagon’ event.

“I’ve got every faith in Tom, I think he is the future of the heavyweight division. This is a great opportunity when the job is done and then he gets to face the winner of Stipe and Jon Jones and after that fight he’ll be a multi-multi-millionaire.”

Aspinall - who has been preparing for this fight will sessions at Wigan Warriors’ Robin Park Arena - burst into the UFC in 2020 after a promising career in a different promotion, Cage Warriors. The Brit heads into the fight with a UFC record of six wins and only one loss – an identical record to his opponent.

With each of his wins coming by knockout or submission – mostly early in the first round – and his solitary defeat due to a freak knee injury, he has long been seen as the greatest threat in the division. But he is aware that he will need to be at his very best to overcome Russian power puncher Pavlovich.

“I’ll mix in anything, anything that I see where I’ve got an advantage, I’ll do that,” he said. “From what we’ve seen of Sergei he’s predominantly a good striker and we don’t really know how his grappling is at this point so I’ll be testing it out.”