Look: Fighter Has Conor McGregor, Tyson, Ali, Jon Jones and Fury Tattooed on His Leg
Professional fighter Aaron Slimane shows off the tattoos he has of Conor McGregor, Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, and Tyson Fury. Ask Aaron Slimane about his tattoos and he’ll start with his leg, because that’s where people always look first.
The 26-year-old from Castleford, West Yorkshire will be stepping into the ring at SENSHI 31 Gladiators in Plovdiv, Bulgaria with a short-notice camp, and a leg that reads like a tribute wall to combat sports royalty.
McGregor, Ali, Tyson, Fury, Jones All on One Leg – Aaron Slimane
“Conor McGregor there, Mystic Mac, Muhammad Ali there with a bit of honeycomb for the butterfly, sting like a bee,” he listed. Tyson Fury, the Gypsy King. Mike Tyson on that side. And Tyson down the middle, representing them both.” Jon “Bones” Jones, widely regarded as one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time rounds out the back of the leg. Five figures, all in one place, all fighters who built their legacies on their own terms.
Slimane thought about what each one means before he sat down. He’s eight fights into his professional career and already ranked number two in the UK at 72.5 kg. The company he’s keeping on his leg is an aspiration as much as a tribute.
The samurai piece is the one that runs deeper. “Samurai, warrior mindset,” he said, and that theme carries from the leg up onto his chest. There’s also a military helmet tattooed on him, a direct mark of his five years of service. He left the Army specifically to commit to professional fighting. hen there’s the Sak Yant, the traditional Thai sacred tattoo he picked up in Thailand.
Slimane took this SENSHI 31 fight on short notice, adjusted his diet on the fly, and made weight without much fuss. “I think you need to work for things. You don’t want to get handed things,” he said. “You want to look back and think, ‘I’ve done something hard, and I had to work for it.'” When he’s injured and out of camp, he said the hardest part isn’t the physical frustration, it’s being pulled out of the routine. “When I’ve been injured, I just think, ‘I can’t wait to be back in camp.’ Where I’m dieting, not drinking, not seeing my friends, because you’re in that flow state.”
Tonight that flow state gets its biggest test. Slimane faces Atanas Bozhilov, “Mr SENSHI,” a two-time WAKO PRO World Champion and the most decorated fighter in the promotion’s history, in a KWU Full Contact super fight at -75 kg, one of three marquee bouts on a card that also features a Lightweight Grand Prix with fighters from 14 nations at the Ancient Theatre of Plovdiv.
“My opponent is very experienced. There is not much he won’t have seen, but I do think he’ll see that I am ready for the big stage,” Slimane said. His plan for the match is simple: Win.
