Tom Aspinall borrows bizarre hand-strengthening technique from traveller legend ahead of UFC 304

Tom Aspinall is soaking his hands in petrol daily ahead of UFC 304.

The interim heavyweight champion is doing everything he can to be at his very best when he takes on Curtis Blaydes at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester on July 27.

During his latest camp, Aspinall has been inspired by the 2011 film Knuckle.

The documentary delves into the world of Irish Traveller bare-knuckle boxing and has become a cult classic since its release.

The Joyces are one of the families heavily featured in the movie, and a clip of their patriarch Joe Joyce talking about the benefits of soaking your knuckles in petrol has since gone viral.  

“You ever see the documentary Knuckle? You familiar with that? It’s a documentary about travellers, travelling communities in the UK, Ireland,” Aspinall said on Monday’s episode of .

“And there’s a guy on there, big Joe Joyce, an old travelling legend, and big Joe Joyce reveals a few gypsy methods for getting ready for a fight.

“I wanted to resort back to a bit of gypsy heritage that I’ve got, so I thought, right, what I’m going to do is I’m going to make a little ring out of hay bales.

“When it gets to about 4am, I get my alarm on, I go outside, do a bit shadowboxing in the hay bales.

“And then I do the old traveller method of dipping your knuckles in petrol for about 20 minutes as the sun’s coming up, and that hardens your knuckles.”

To some, Aspinall’s methods may seem strange, but former heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury has also dipped his hands in petrol to prepare for a fight.

The UFC star, who used to spar with Fury, claims he is already feeling the benefits.

He added: “These are some of the hardest knuckles in the UFC right here right now. They’re like rocks.”

Aspinall first fought Blaydes at UFC London in July 2022, but their fight was over after 15 seconds as the Englishman suffered a devastating knee injury.

Since then, he’s got his career back on track with knockout wins over Marcin Tybura and Sergei Pavlovich to put himself on the brink of a shot a UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

Blaydes is 1-1 since beating Aspinall and is determined to prove their first fight would’ve gone his way regardless of the injury.

They’ll battle it out for the secondary heavyweight title before welterweight king Leon Edwards defends his belt against Belal Muhammad in the UFC 304 main event.