Tom Aspinall is in awe of Alexander Volkanovski. The English UFC interim heavyweight champ is super impressed by the Australian — not just by his wins in the octagon, but his success outside of it. Aspinall admits he is wowed by how the former UFC featherweight champion has managed to build up an incredibly successful media brand for himself, while still remaining an active fighter.
‘The Great’ is now a legitimate YouTube sensation. He has a hit channel on the video sharing platform called Cooking with Volk, in which he brings in content creators, celebrities, and fellow UFC fighters for fun cooking sessions.
Volk’s YouTube success is no mean feat — his videos regularly rack up close to half a million views, and his channel has amassed over half a million subscribers. And spinall, who has been trying his hand at YouTube content creation himself, knows just how hard it is to pull off those kind of numbers, particularly for a pro athlete still working an active career.
When it comes to knocking over viewers on social media, though, Aspinall isn’t lagging Volk by that much, though. His YouTube channel has close to 400k subscribers. And clearly, he seems to be drawing inspiration from the way Volk runs his shows.
During a recent appearance on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, the Honey Badger shared a surprising anecdote about Volk’s growing YouTube fame.
“Volk was actually telling me now that his channel is doing so well, that people don’t even know he’s a UFC fighter,” Aspinall shared.
Logan and co-host Mike Majlak couldn’t help but laugh at the revelation. Given that both of them have appeared on Volkanovski’s YouTube channel, they understand first-hand how much effort he puts into his content.
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Volkanovski’s unique approach to YouTube — blending humor, personality, and cooking skills — has allowed him to reach a broader audience beyond hardcore MMA fans. All this while training to take on Diego Lopes in the main card of UFC 314 on April 12.
Aspinall, in between chasing Jon Jones for that elusive unification bout, has been trying different means to get his videos to garner traction online. Including trying some very risky stunts.
Aspinall kicked hard by the World’s Strongest Man
In one of his recent YouTube videos, Aspinall put his potential fight against Jones at risk by taking a full-strength kick from the world’s strongest man, Tom Stoltman. Stoltman, a three-time winner of the World’s Strongest Man title (2021, 2022, 2024), teamed up with Aspinall for a challenge that tested just how hard Stoltman could kick.
“Mixing it up a bit, and we’re going current world’s strongest man,” Aspinall said before the session.
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After trading light kicks at 20% and 30% power, Aspinall pushed the 6’8″ Stoltman, who weighs in at a staggering 408 pounds, to go all out with a leg kick at 100% power.
The result? A visibly shaken Aspinall exclaimed, “Oh yeah, that’s a good kick, I’ve got a dead leg mate.”
Stoltman burst into laughter at Aspinall’s reaction. However, Aspinall’s manager and his coaching team would have had their hearts in their mouths when it happened.
