Tom Aspinall Reveals Using Gypsy Techniques to Prepare for UFC 304

Tom Aspinall is drawing from traditional gypsy fighting to prepare for his upcoming title defense.

Aspinall puts his interim heavyweight title on the line against Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 on July 27 in front of a home crowd at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England. Aspinall claims to have some gypsy roots, which he is resorting to in preparation for UFC 304.

“Honey Badger” picked up a few tricks shown by Irish traveling bare knuckle boxing legend Big Joe Joyce in the 2011 documentary “Knuckle,” which is about the secretive world of Irish traveling bare knuckle boxing shot over a period of 12 years.

Drawing from that, Aspinall now shadowboxes early in the morning with rings of hay bales wrapped around his hands. Aspinall also dips his knuckles in petrol for twenty minutes as the sun is coming up, which allegedly makes them rock hard.

“Have you ever seen the documentary Knuckle? It’s a documentary about traveling communities in the UK, Ireland. There’s a guy on there, Big Joe Joyce, an old traveling legend. And Big Joe Joyce reveals a few gypsy methods for getting ready for a fight,” Aspinall said on "The MMA Hour.”

“And I wanted to resort back to bit of gypsy heritage that I’ve got. So I thought right, what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna make a little ring of hay bales… When it gets to about 4 a.m., I get my alarm on, I go outside, do a little bit of shadow boxing with 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.”

UFC 304 is scheduled for U.S. primetime, which means the main card commences at 3 a.m. British Summer Time (BST). Aspinall initially tried to convince the UFC to change the timing for the card, without any success. However, Aspinall has now come into terms with the odd time, which according to him, shouldn’t be an issue. Aspinall believes the most elite fighters’ performances will remains consistent regardless of the time of the bout.

“If you could fight really well at 12 o’clock midnight, but you can’t fight really well at 4 a.m., you weren’t that good in the first place, in my opinion… if you’re using that as an excuse, you can find better excuses than that,” he said. “You can find better excuses than a time difference. If you’re a top-level elite athlete, it shouldn’t be an issue. And it won’t be an issue for me.”