UFC 304 is now one for the books and yet again, Tom Aspinall scored a big knockout and yet again, he did so in under five minutes. In the co-main event of the evening, Aspinall put his interim heavyweight strap on the line against his former foe (and the only man to beat him in the UFC), Curtis Blaydes. Walking out to ‘Supersonic’ by Manchester legend, Oasis, Aspinall was full of confidence and why wouldn’t he be?
Since that lone promotional loss to Blaydes, the Brit rebounded with a big, dominant win over Marcin Tybura before blitzing Sergei Pavlovich to capture the interim belt. None of these fights made it over 1:15.
Stepping in against Blaydes in his home country of England, extremely close to where his home town is, Aspinall had the whole crowd behind him. Unfortunately for the crowd, they didn’t get to see too much of their man. After a few tense exchanges, Aspinall would throw a lightening quick one-two. It wouldn’t be the huge, heavy backhand that would cause the damage, however. The jab of Aspinall was enough to drop Blaydes, with the right winging past the American’s ear. A number of finishing follow up shots ensured that the Brit would leave the area with the belt that he bought Coop Live Arena.
Was it an early stoppage? Perhaps slightly. With that being said, there was an inevitability with the finish.
You can check out our review podcast of the whole event here:
Heavyweight’s On Notice
There are just two fights that make sense for Aspinall. Either a mega-fight with the light heavyweight champion, the feared, Alex Pereira. Or… Jon Jones.
Jones is the undisputed heavyweight king, however, he’s had just one fight since 2020, is ageing, injured more often than not and very, very inactive. He’s the old breed of fighter, whereas Aspinall is the new breed. A 6’5, 250lbs fighter who moves like a welterweight, but hits as hard any heavyweight in the world today. With a background in BJJ, the Brit is a problem for anyone, wherever the fight goes.
Jones is seemingly going to fight Stipe Miocic next, a man who has been even more inactive than Jones, having not won a fight since 2020 and not competed since 2021. Logically, he deserved the shot at Jones, as he’s the most successful heavyweight of all time, however, with such a long period of time out of the octagon, there has to be questions asked.
The world wants Aspinall vs. Jones. Book it UFC!!!
