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He could've done it during the many sparring sessions they had. Few seconds of video or a few seconds taking a picture pre or post sparring would've been enough. He could post the picture and tag Tyson Fury in it and Tyson Fury may post it on his own social media accounts. All relatively quick and easy to do and you don't have to ask for much in doing something like that.
I understand he's focused on the grind, most are focused only on the grind, but the promotion also helps for their careers. Yeah it may add more pressure or have you doing more stuff than just training, but when you get to the top it's filled with media so you have to get used to that type of extra work anyway. Better to start getting accustomed to that sooner than later. Plus if things don't work and you don't become a champion, you can still have a fanbase and people following your career even with losses. Some of the highest paid and most well known fighters in UFC were never a UFC champion, so that's something to think about. Imagine if they actually became champion, they would be even bigger than they currently are and even better paid.
The thing a lot of fighters don't realize is all that extra stuff is required at the top. Even Khabib had to get adjusted to all that and he started doing a lot of self promotion. He didn't have to fake it or try to be a heel, he just got more outspoken and started claiming what he thought was his and making challenges and call outs during his fights and post fights. Khabib was talking shit to Dana about Conor while fighting and in between rounds, then publicly calling him out and saying he's going to smash his boy in the post fight interview. That's also self promotion.
HW is wide open for a contender for UFC to push. Ngannou's future is uncertain, Gane already lost to Ngannou and had his shot at the title, Jones may eventually fight at HW but that is also still uncertain, Stipe is getting close to ending his career - so HW is wide open for a new contender for UFC to back since HW division is something they historically like to focus on. Aspinal can take advantage of this opportunity to really fast track his career and overall exposure.
Derrick Lewis is a prime example of a HW they backed and wanted to win the title and he was given many opportunities to try and win the title. They did a lot of promo work for Lewis and had events in his home state where he was the headliner for title fights. He's also one of the highest paid fighters in UFC and was never the champion. Derrick Lewis also did a lot of self promotion on top of UFC's push. Aspinal could do something very similar on his way to the title to increase his exposure and fight purse on his way up. Also if he doesn't succeed the first time they can always let him try again later like they did with Derrick Lewis, but the multiple attempts at the title only happens when UFC is backing you.
I don't think he's actually sparred with Tyson in quite some time if you read between the lines. The last time he's talked about one of their sparring sessions was for a pre-fight interview in October of 2020, when he was set to fight Alan Baudot -- his second UFC fight when both men were unranked. And even then, from his wording it seems to me that the sparring in question happened in a past-tense and not for that training camp. The fact that he keeps Tyson Fury on the tip of his tongue and gives off the idea that he's in the gym getting rounds with him every other day to some fans (and even the media/commentators on occasion) is in my opinion self-promotion at its best. It doesn't help that Tyson has had multiple bouts of his own in that subsequent time and we've seen him drilling with the likes of Nick Diaz of all people. I think they're supporting each other from afar, but I could be wrong.
Khabib despite his best efforts didn't really have a ton of eyes on him at first, though. He wasn't some social media mogul (Ali and Javier Mendez helped a fair bit though). Yes, as his command of English improved it helped -- not to mention people were obviously interested in the dominant rising contender and eventually the new champ. But a lot of his following was regional/ethnic until his name was attached to a match-up with McGregor, which put him over the top and made him something resembling a household name as the guy who dominated Conor. He called guys out and called his shot? You mean like Aspinall has been doing since he got into the UFC? Tom has never been scared to push for fights he wants -- after his first win in the Octagon he started pushing hard for the Spivak fight because Sergey was another rising unranked HW contender coming off a recent win. He pushed multiple times for it to get rebooked and has always talked candidly about how he feels his skills match up with the HW Top 10. After submitting Volkov he had a call-out ready for fan favorite Tai Tuivasa that he had clearly rehearsed and again kept calling for the fight in subsequent media appearances... but neither Bam Bam nor the UFC seemed interested.
I think for where Aspinall is in his career, his level of self-promotion is pretty reasonable. I'm sure he'll start doing more stuff on YouTube and social media in the future considering he's already been fairly active since he was a fairly low-ranked Heavyweight. Could he stand to do more? Sure. Beyond that, though, I don't really feel we disagree on much.