TOM ASPINALL was a day out from a holiday before he got a phone call that could change his career.
The British heavyweight challenges for the interim UFC title over the weekend in New York against Sergei Pavlovich.
The card was due to be headlined by UFC legends Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic for the full belt.
That was until Jones suffered a pectoral injury that requires surgery and forced him off the card.
Miocic decided to sit out and wait to reschedule the bout, leaving the UFC scrambling to find a pair of replacements.
That was when Aspinall, 30, got the phone call of a lifetime in the early hours of the morning.
He told TNT Sports: “Do you know what? I got the call early in the morning, so I was sleeping.
“And it was off someone really high up in the UFC, not Dana White but someone really high up, who’s never called me before.
“And I could hear my phone vibrating on the side of me like this and I was like, ‘That’s weird someone ringing me at that time.’
“So I picked it up and as I picked it up I saw the person’s name and then it went off, you know like it stopped ringing.
He told TNT Sports: “Do you know what? I got the call early in the morning, so I was sleeping.
“And it was off someone really high up in the UFC, not Dana White but someone really high up, who’s never called me before.
“And I could hear my phone vibrating on the side of me like this and I was like, ‘That’s weird someone ringing me at that time.’
“So I picked it up and as I picked it up I saw the person’s name and then it went off, you know like it stopped ringing.
