Tom Aspinall is reluctant to have a nickname but is beginning to become intrigued by one possibility.
Aspinall faced Sergey Pavlovic on short notice at UFC 295 in November 2023 and won by first-round knockout to become the interim heavyweight champion. Aspinall accepted the nickname “Honey Badger,” suggested by Daniel Cormier before the fight, but it was not official at the time.
Aspinall recently explained the origins of the nickname. When Aspinall told Cormier and Jon Alnwick at a fighter/commentator meet that he performs better when under threat, “DC” likened him to a honey badger. Honey badgers typically only attack when threatened by a predator, but are one of the ferocious fighters in the animal kingdom and have been known to take on larger animals like leopards and lions. Aspinall was still reluctant to have a nickname, but “Honey Badger” certainly caught his interest.
“I’ve always been against the nickname — for myself, not for everybody — but I thought it was kind of lame. Then everybody started talking about this Honey Buzzard thing,” Aspinall recently told Title Sports Network. “It was [Daniel
Cormier]During fight week, we have like a fighter meeting with the commentators, and I said, “Look, I’m not very good in the gym. I’m much better in fights than I am in the gym.” And he said, “Yeah, why?” And I said, “Well, I’m scared in fights, but I’m not scared in the gym. I think I perform much better under pressure and fear.”
“And DC said, ‘You look like a honey buzzard.’ And I was like, ‘What is that?’ I had no idea. And he said, ‘Oh, he’s like this little animal, this gentle, easy-going animal, but when he gets scared he will attack lions and things and kill them, or he will kill other big animals if he’s attacked and scared. He gets out of his body and does things he normally doesn’t do.’ And I was like, ‘That’s really cool, but I don’t really want a nickname.’ But as time went on I was like, ‘If I was going to have a nickname, maybe that’d be it.’ And that was DC and Jon Alnwick.”
Aspinall will defend his interim title in a rematch against Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 on July 27 at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, England.
