"We're currently waiting for the swelling to go down" - Tom Aspinall provides knee injury update, shares timeline for surgery

UFC heavyweight Tom Aspinall has provided fans with an update on his knee injury following the distressing scenes at UFC Fight Night London last weekend.

Aspinall, the No.6 ranked heavyweight, was facing his toughest test in the octagon yet against elite wrestler Curtis Blaydes. 'Two Beers' main evented in front of his homecrowd for the second time in a row but his and the British fans' hopes were dashed when Aspinall collapsed to the floor in agony holding his knee.

Moments earlier, the Manchester-born fighter had landed a heavy, unchecked leg kick on Blaydes but dropped to the ground soon after. The bout was waved off after just 15 seconds.

In a video posted on his Twitter, the 29-year-old said:

"Hello everyone, just a quick update on the knee situation. Anybody who's got knee problems knows, that in order to have an MRI scan, an accurate MRI scan, you need to wait for the swelling to go down. I spoke to the surgeon, we have a rough idea what it is...I will be having the scan this weekend and having surgery early next week in London."

Although Aspinall has not confirmed exactly what the injury is, most MMA pundits agree it was an MCL ligament tear due to the severe pain the heavyweight was in. Although an MCL injury is considered 'better' than an ACL injury, Aspinall is still expected to be out of action from the octagon until at least next year.

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Tom Aspinall reveals the main reason why he signed with the UFC

Although the UFC is credited as being the largest MMA promotion in the world, that's not one of the main reasons Tom Aspinall signed for the organization in 2020.

A year prior to signing, the British heavyweight was doing the rounds in Cage Warriors. Aspinall had two fights in the promotion in 2019, winning via first-round TKO in both.

Speaking on a recent episode of UFC Connected with Megan Olivi, 'Two Pints' admitted the major reason he signed for the UFC was because Cage Warriors were struggling to find him opponents that were willing to fight him:

"Cage Warriors were really struggling to get me opponents and they told me that. And I thought, if Cage Warriors release me, I'm back to square one. So it's either, I go to the UFC now or I'm back to where I was two years ago, so obviously we went for the UFC, and obviously, it was the right move, so I'm happy with it."

Catch Tom Aspinall's interview here:

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