Returning after a devastating injury, Tom Aspinall predictably dominated like he’d never been away. Taking on Marcin Tybura in the main event of UFC London, Aspinall took just 1:13 to finish his Polish adversary, lighting up the O2 Arena in the country’s capital.
The crowd were a little flat having just seen England’s own, Molly McCann suffer a dominant first-round submission loss to Julija Stoliarenko. Making the walk after a brief voiceover from WBC heavyweight champion and former sparing partner, Tyson Fury, Aspinall looked like he was back where he belonged.
After the fight, the Manchester man took to the mic and put the whole heavyweight division on notice, mapping out who he wants and how he’s going to capture the belt.
The Fight Itself (all 1:13 of it)
As soon as the fight began, we saw what we expected from England’s heavyweight hope. He was light on his feet, showed lighting quick hand speed as well as testing out his knee with brutal leg kicks.
He was elusive, avoiding Tybura’s wild swinging hooks. His footwork caused Tybura to bite on feints, making it obvious what his game plan was: to meet fire with fire when Aspinall entered.
Showing great ring generalship, Aspinall kept Tybura thinking, forced him to constantly reset and never allowed him to settle into a rhythm.
The finish came as Aspinall landed a sweet step-in elbow to the top of Tybura’s head as Tybura shelled up to take the assumed strikes on his forearms. This elbow was followed up by a rapid series of punches, where a straight right dropped the Polish heavyweight. Several ground and pound shots then forced referee Marc Goddard to step in a rubber stamp the Aspinall comeback.
Aspinall looked DAMN GOOD tonight #UFCLondon pic.twitter.com/NWQnRJE0Ci
— danawhite (@danawhite) July 22, 2023
What’s Next?
Speaking to Michael Bisping post-fight, Aspinall was extremely clear as to what he wanted next. He stated:
“I’m gonna go to Paris, I’m gonna be sat front row for Ciryl Gane against Sergey Spivak, I’m gonna beat the winner and then I’m gonna beat Jon Jones”
It doesn’t get much clearer than that. Aspinall has a plan, has the skills to play out the plan and has fans extremely excited. He’s also clearly got the attention of the heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, who took to Twitter to air his view!
https://twitter.com/JonnyBones/status/1682882254580912128
