Tom Aspinall’s father has tipped the UFC heavyweight champion to make a lucrative switch to boxing, expressing a desire to see the Briton make the kind of money that “one of the best in the world at what he does” should earn.

Andy Aspinall has coached Tom in martial arts throughout the 32-year-old’s entire life, and will be in his son’s corner on 25 October, as Tom defends the undisputed UFC heavyweight title for the first time.

Tom won the interim title with a knockout of Sergei Pavlovich in November 2023 and retained it in the same fashion against Curtis Blaydes last July, with his decision to defend the interim belt a rare, risky move.

In the main event of UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi, the Wigan heavyweight defends the undisputed title against France’s Ciryl Gane, having been elevated from interim to regular champion this summer – after Jon Jones elected to retire and vacate his belt instead of fighting Aspinall.

Yet boxing could lie in Aspinall’s future, in a move that would see the Briton build upon a professional outing in 2017 – a first-round KO win – and past training sessions with former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

“I’d love him to have a very highly-paid boxing match for the money,” Andy Aspinall said on Tom’s YouTube channel. “The money’s there, and I don’t see why somebody as talented as Tom shouldn’t have a piece of that money, when the boxers are getting 100-times more – more than 100-times more.

“The UFC isn’t paying that type of money. If they would, it would be great, but I think this one per cent of people who are very, very good should get paid. Tom’s money, some people say it’s good, [but] compared to a football or soccer player or American footballer – who we’ve talked to when we were in America – he’s earning a tiny fraction of what they’re earning.

“He’s one of the best in the world at doing what he does and [is] not getting paid enough, and it’s very dangerous. So, when he’s got enough to get out of it, I’d say: ‘Get out of it.’

“And if I see that he’s not doing good enough… I can’t make him get out of it, I can’t beg him to get out of it, but I’d have to say: ‘Look, I can’t see this happening to you.’ I’d probably have to move house and get away – out of the area, away from it – because I couldn’t be around my son… because nobody’s gonna look after him like I’d look after him. And I think I’m alright at doing what I’ve done.”

Aspinall has proved unstoppable in the UFC, outside of an injury-induced loss to Blaydes in their first fight in 2022. On that occasion, Aspinall fell to the canvas clutching his knee within the first 15 seconds, but he has otherwise been faultless since making his UFC debut in 2020.

Barring his loss to Blaydes, Aspinall has won every fight by stoppage, never going past the second round. His average fight time of two minutes and two seconds is the shortest in the UFC for an athlete with five or more fights.

Aspinall will enter UFC 321 on the back of three straight first-round knockouts in fact, while Gane’s last outing was a controversial decision win against Alexander Volkov in December. Gane, 35, previously outpointed Volkov in 2021, a year before Aspinall submitted the Russian.

UFC 321 marks Gane’s third time challenging for the undisputed UFC heavyweight title. He won the interim belt in 2021 but lost to then-undisputed champion Francis Ngannou in 2022, and he was submitted by Jones in a vacant-title fight in 2023.

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