Tom Aspinall shares footage from sparring session with former ‘World’s Strongest Man’ Eddie Hall
Tom Aspinall is staying busy while he waits for a fight date.
The interim UFC heavyweight champion has been relentlessly calling for a big-name opponent since winning his title by knocking out Sergei Pavlovich in November.
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Jon Jones, who holds the primary UFC heavyweight belt, wants to face fellow MMA legend Stipe Miocic when he returns from injury, rather than unify the division in a fight with Aspinall.
UFC fighters aren’t exactly lining up to face the Englishman right now.
So, he’s been looking outside Dana White’s promotion for a stay-busy opponent, and he’s managed to convince a former World’s Strongest Man to throw down with him.
Aspinall recently shared footage of him sparring Eddie Hall on TikTok.
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‘The Beast’ was crowned the World’s Strongest Man in 2017, but has since taken an interest in combat sports, and even had a boxing match with fellow strongman Hafþór Björnsson, which he lost by a unanimous decision.
Hall didn’t do any better against Aspinall, who showed his class by expertly moving out of the way of the massive shots flying at him from his 23-stone training partner.
The clip, which has quickly gone viral on social media, starts with Aspinall tapping away at Hall with punches and kicks to the head, body and legs.
Hall eats them all as he tries to close the distance before throwing a massive overhand right that misses wildly - but a punch to the body did knock the UFC superstar off balance.
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Aspinall picked up the pace and landed a clean one-two combination.
Hall was breathing out of his mouth when the Atherton man jumped back in with a four-punch combination that forced him to curl up into a ball against the cage.
Tom Aspinall presses 60KG weights which are the equivalent of two UFC flyweights in brutal session with Eddie Hall
Aspinall spent the rest of the sparring round peppering away with light shots while staying out of the monstrous punches that zoomed by his head every so often.
The two men touched gloves when the bell sounded to end their session after forming an unlikely friendship over the past few months.
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Hall has been training for his MMA debut for the best part of the year.
The 36-year-old was set to take on Mitchell Hooper, the current World’s Strongest Man, at an event in Qatar last month – but the fight fell apart at the last minute.
Hall’s sparring sessions with Aspinall won’t go to waste, as he’s still in talks to make his MMA debut against another big name from the strongman world.
“Is there a fight looming? Yes, there is,” he said on his YouTube channel.
“I'm talking to quite a few promoters, got quite a few different people setting things up, trying to lure fighters in.
"Martyn Ford, of course, is one of those. Brian Shaw is one of those, Mitchell Hooper is one of those."
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