Tom Aspinall offers to welcome Alex Pereira to heavyweight after UFC 304: ‘I want to fight him’

Slated to return at the end of this month in the co-main event of UFC 304 in Manchester, current interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall has once again welcomed the chance to take on light heavyweight kingpin, Alex Pereira in the future – claiming he “absolutely” wants to tackle the Brazilian.

Aspinall, the current interim heavyweight champion, will return to the Octagon later this month in the co-headliner of UFC 304, taking on former-foe, Curtis Blaydes – in a defense of his interim crown.

Sharing the card with the above-mentioned Sao Paulo knockout artist, Pereira back in November of last year at UFC 295, Aspinall snatched the interim heavyweight crown with a stunning knockout win against the streaking, Sergei Pavlovich at Madison Square Garden.

Tom Aspinall offers to take on Alex Pereira at heavyweight

And linked continually with a heavyweight fight against former two-weight champion, Pereira – who called for his own divisional leap off the back of his high-kick knockout against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 303 last weekend, Aspinall is all ears to a clash in the near future.

“As we’ve seen with me, I’m not shying away from anybody,” Tom Aspinall told talkSPORT reporter, Jordan Ellis. “So, if the UFC wanna do that [a fight versus Alex Pereira], I’m happy to do that. I think as an elite level fighter myself, you can’t help but be impressed with what Alex Pereira has done over the last couple of years. I mean, this time two years ago, nobody had a clue who he was, now he’s one of the biggest stars in MMA – one of the best fighters in UFC history.”

“I really, really respect what he’s done,” Tom Aspinall explained. “Does that mean that I don’t wanna fight him? I absolutely wanna fight him, but I’m sure there’ll be a time and a place for it. I’m not jumping ahead of things right now, I’m fighting Curtis Blaydes now. If that’s what the UFC wanna do one day, then we’ll absolutely do it.”

Who wins in a future heavyweight clash: Tom Aspinall or Alex Pereira?