Tom Aspinall discusses unfavorable UFC 304 walkout time, says UFC refused broadcast schedule change: "This is a bit of a shi**er for me"

Tom Aspinall recently addressed the inconvenient walkout time scheduled for UFC 304, revealing that despite his request, the UFC declined to adjust the broadcast schedule. Aspinall is set to defend his interim heavyweight title against former adversary Curtis Blaydes in the co-headliner of what will be the eighth pay-per-view (PPV) event of 2024.

UFC 304 is scheduled for July 27 at the Co-op Live arena in Manchester, England. The event broadcast will commence around 11 PM BST, primarily catering to North American fans. As a result, Aspinall will only make the walk to the octagon in the early hours of the following morning.

During a recent interview on Submission Radio (via MMA Fighting), the 31-year-old Brit revealed that he reached out to UFC officials to inquire about the possibility of adjusting the start time for UFC 304. However, he mentioned that the MMA promotion declined his request to change the timing. He said:

"No apologies. I don’t expect an apology either, and this is the UFC we’re dealing with. I just kind of put the feelers out there a little bit to see, like, this is a bit of a sh*tter for me and the other fighters and the UK fans who want to come to watch it live."

He added:

"I was putting the feelers out, 'Listen, is there any chance we can switch that?’ And they were just like, ‘Nope. Absolutely not.' ... There was no play on that at all. Just straight-up, no, that was it."

The UFC's previous event in Manchester, UFC 204 in October 2016, also took place during similar hours. However, the promotion's most recent PPV event, UFC 286, held in London last March, took place during an earlier time slot.

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Tom Aspinall discusses his upcoming rematch against Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304

Tom Aspinall and Curtis Blaydes previously faced off at UFC London in July 2022. However, the outcome of the match was marred by Aspinall's TKO loss that came from an unforeseen knee injury just 15 seconds into the fight.

During a recent interview with The Mac Life, the interim UFC heavyweight champion reflected on the rematch against Blaydes set to take place at UFC 304:

"Curtis is the toughest matchup in the division for me stylistically. This is no disrespect to Curtis. It's a bit of a lose-lose fight. In the fact that he's not that popular. The guys who you want to fight are the guys who stylistically you match up well with, and they're really popular. They're the guys you wanna fight."

Check out Tom Aspinall's comments below (6:05):