“I think that a lot of MMA fighters, they’ve obviously not done a lot of boxing sparring with professional boxers,” Aspinall said on the “Fight Your Corner” podcast. “Like I’ve done a lot, I’ve been around the boxing gyms and sparred a lot of boxers. Yeah, and listen: I ain’t gonna beat a boxer in a boxing fight. It’s not happening.

“I might beat some, do you know what I mean, at a certain level. But like, I’m not gonna jump in and beat an Oleksandr Usyk or a Tyson Fury or Anthony Joshua – it’s just not happening.”

Aspinall’s honest assessment came out last week, before Usyk survived a scare against former kickboxing champion Rico Verhoeven on Saturday night in Giza, Egypt. Usyk – The Ring, IBF, WBA and WBC champ – was behind on one scorecard and even on two when he scored a controversial 11th-round stoppage when referee Mark Lyson waved off the fight with a second remaining in the round.

“They don’t even let him make it to the end of the round. It’s a f****** robbery. What the f*** is that?” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel during a live reaction to the fight. “Boxing doesn’t want anyone else to win, simple as that. They want boxers with the amateur style coming in, winning the Olympic medal, and then switching over and being unbeaten pros. They don’t like other combat sports. It’s bull****.”

Aspinall is no stranger to the sweet science. The 33-year-old MMA star from Lancashire, England, scored a first-round stoppage in his lone boxing match in 2017 against a 33-fight veteran.

“The chances of you switching over to boxing and beating a boxer is very, very slim as well,” Aspinall said. “You’ve been training MMA, which is all different facets, from striking, grappling, jiu-jitsu, cage wrestling – all different. Like, we could sit here and name like 20 martial arts that are involved in MMA. For the time you’ve been doing that, one guy has just been boxing.”

Aspinall has a 15-3 record in MMA (11 KOs, 4 submissions). He is 8-1, with 1 No-Contest, in the UFC since he started competing in the organization six years ago.

He last fought in October against Ciryl Gane, but the fight ended anticlimactically in the first round after Aspinall was unable to continue due to a pair of eye pokes that later resulted in surgeries on both eyes in February.

Aspinall appears to be on the mend, however. He recently released footage training alongside Agit Kabayel, the WBC interim heavyweight champion and The Ring’s No. 2-ranked contender.

Aspinall signed with Eddie Hearn’s nascent talent management agency in March and has been vocal about improving fighter pay in the UFC in recent months.

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan.