There’s no doubt that UFC London is stacked…again! Tom Aspinall and Curtis Blaydes headline the card in what could potentially be a #1 contender’s fight for a heavyweight title shot. The co-main event was scheduled to be Darren Till vs. Jack Hermansson, however, Till has had to withdraw and been replaced by Chris Curtis. Paddy Pimblett, Molly McCann and former title challengers, Alexander Gustafsson and Volkan Oezdemir all also feature on the card.
There are a number of notable British names that are missing from the UFC London card and we take a look at the Top 5. We still don’t know why Jack Shore, who fought last weekend wasn’t pushed back a week in order to fight in the UK. Unfortunately for the UK fans, Shore suffered his first UFC loss at the hands of Ricky Simón.
Top 5 Fighters who are Missing from UFC London
1 – Lerone Murphy
‘The Miracle’, Lerone Murphy is still yet to fight in front of his home crowd, despite being a member of the UFC roster since 2019. The caveat to this is that he debuted during the pandemic and therefore wasn’t able to feature in the UK. With that being said, there’s no real reason as to why he wasn’t on March’s London card. He has a valid reason as to not be on this weekend’s card, however. He suffered a potentially life-threatening injury. Murphy reported that he was hit by a car, suffered a head injury and almost bled out waiting for medical help.
Lerone Murphy NEEDS to be on the UFC London card this time around pic.twitter.com/BIJO1M5UVb
— LW 🦍 (@UnderratedZ7) April 28, 2022
Murphy is undefeated at 11-0-1 and deserves to fight in front of his home crowd sooner or later. Unfortunately, it won’t be on this weekend’s card, however, let’s hope to see him feature on a PPV towards the end of the year when he’s back up to full fitness.
Potential Opponents – Hakeem Dawodu, Julian Erosa, Edson Barboza
2 – Arnold Allen
London. March. Co-main event. Arnold Allen picks up the biggest victory of his career when he faced Dan Hooker. Hooker was dropping down to featherweight for the first time in 12 fights. He clashed with some of the biggest names at 155lbs, seemingly being on the edge of a title shot at times. Allen and Hooker went to war for just 2:33 and it was Allen who hooked his way to victory.
Ranked #6 in the featherweight division, Allen is due a big fight. He’s riding a nine-fight winning run and has rarely been tested thus far. It doesn’t make an awful lot of sense as to why he’s not featuring in the O2 again in what would have been his fifth appearance in the arena under the UFC banner. Let’s hope that Allen will get the big fight that he deserves towards the end of the year.
Potential Opponents – Brian Ortega, Bryce Mitchell, Josh Emmett
3 – Cory McKenna
The young Welsh scrapper, Cory McKenna is 1-1 in the UFC and was lucky enough to feature on the last UFC London card in March. Unfortunately for her, she was unable to get her hand raised on this occasion, suffering the first loss of her career. Let’s not get mistaken, however, at just 23, she can certainly ‘go again’.
She’s scheduled to face Miranda Granger at the UFC fight night card scheduled for August 6th, however, she should certainly be featuring on the upcoming British card.
4 – Davey Grant
England’s own, Davey Grant has hit a decent run of form as of late. Since 2020, he’s notched four fight bonuses in five fights, including two performance of the night bonuses and two fight of the night bonuses. He’s gone to distance with Marlon Vera and Adrian Yanez and although he lost both of these, he was in the fight for the full 15 minutes. Most recently, Grant savagely knocked out Louis Smolka in May, sending him out of the UFC.
Arguably the reason that Grant won’t be featuring on UFC London this weekend is due to it being too short a turnaround from his last bout, where he did take some damage. It would have made sense for Grant to feature at the O2, having not fought in England since UFC 204 in 2016. Grant could possibly feature on the UFC Paris card, which of course is a little closer to home for UK fans.
Potential Opponents – Raphael Assuncao, Casey Kenny, Victor Henry
5 – Gunnar Nelson
UK fan favourite ‘Gunni’ Gunnar Nelson regularly competes at UFC London, having featured on three of the last four cards from the O2 arena. The welterweight made a triumphant return to action in March, out-pointing and largely dominating Takashi Sato, having not picked up a victory since 2018.
Again, it doesn’t make sense as to why Nelson isn’t on this July’s card. He’s not been very active, only competing four times since 2018. The card from London this weekend would be a great opportunity for him to get back out in 2022 and then possibly compete again later on in the year. We’d assume that he’ll only feature once more this year as he isn’t currently booked.
