Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion Tom Aspinall suffered from what many consider the only legitimate loss of his career when he fell victim to the 'entry of the year' in 2015.
Nowadays Aspinall is generally considered the best heavyweight in mixed martial arts because of its rapid rise to gold on the largest stage of sport.
Although it still claims an undisputed status in the UFC, the apparent reluctance of Jon Jones to fight Aspinall has some to recognize the Brit as the true champion of the division.
Apart from Aspinall's freak injury to Curtis Blaydes, the UFC record of the interim title holder Brandschoon is.
But the career of the 32-year-old is not without a few setbacks, one of which looked one to push another English heavyweight to the top.
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Stuart Austin submitted the then Future UFC champion Tom Aspinall in 2015
After three first round finishes that amounted to a total of only 73 seconds of cage time, Aspinall was compared to 8-2 heavyweight Stuart Austin on Bamma 21 in June 2015.
The fight came to an end with just over a minute of the remains of the round when Austin Aspinall forced to peak on a horrible broadcast of the Hakhaak.
Austin then collected the Award of the Year 'prize of the promotion for 2015 and later won the Bamma Heavyweight calls to cement itself as a to look.
The only other pre-PUC loss of Aspinall only came two fights after he had been submitted by Austin.
It came in a more doubtful way, with a downward elbow who was then ruled an illegal move that caused a disqualification against Lukasz Parobiec in 2016.
Unlike Tom Aspinall, Stuart Austin never reached the UFC
After three straight victories after his DQ against, Aspinall gave his way to the UFC. Since then he has risen by the ranks and is currently encouraged on a unification fight with Jones, the man who is generally considered the greatest of all time.
Things have happened considerably differently for the only man who beats Aspinall 'legitimate'.
After the end of his BAMMA regime, Austin has endured inconsistency in the cage, so that winning winning runs under banners such as EFC and the PFL could gather.
During an interview with Talksport in July 2024, 'He-Man' admitted that he fell with fighting out of love.
“I am not really motivated by fighting. I enjoy training,” said Austin. “It is a nasty place, you know, competitive, in terms of career and also financially. It is just bad to be honest. It is extremely frustrating.
“I don't make it a secret that I really don't like anymore.
“I used to love it. I always really enjoyed competing. There is just a moment in the time that I just no longer enjoy the stress of the competition. It is extremely stressful … There was a time that I was younger, when I really enjoyed the stress and feeling like that, and now I just don't do.”
If Austin's time is competing, his career would have finished on a three-field-winning run.
The Brit has not lost since a TKO defeat for the then defensive champion Bruno Cappelozza on PFL 2 in 2022.
During the same interview, Austin recognized the superior success that Aspinall enjoyed despite the result of their collision.
The 36-year-old, however, stated that he has no bitter feelings about how things have gone in his career.
“Certainly, [Aspinall’s] I have been more successful than me, but I literally don't care at all, “said Austin.” I don't think you understand how much I no longer enjoy it. I'm just peace with it, man. It is what it is. He did it and I didn't. I'm really not worried about that. “
