Rising heavyweight star Tom Aspinall will once again headline the UFC’s return to London on July 23rd, and this time he’ll be going up against another prominent contender in Curtis Blaydes.
Aspinall earned a major victory in surprisingly swift fashion against Alexander Volkov in the main event of the UFC’s last trip to London just a few months ago in March, submitting him in the opening round via a straight armbar.
That took the 29-year-old Aspinall’s current unbeaten run in the UFC to five fights, all by finish inside the distance, including TKO stoppages of Jake Collier, Alan Baudot and Sergey Spivak alongside a further submission stoppage against Andrei Arlovski.
Aspinall’s latest victory was one of a number of stand-out performances by the UK’s current crop of talented fighters in London, and together with the electric atmosphere inside the 02 arena that night, it led UFC boss Dana White to vow that they would return to the city before the end of the year, and he’s been as good as his word.
Now the 6th ranked Aspinall finds himself locking horns with the No.4 placed Blaydes, who is currently on a two-fight winning streak against Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Chris Daukaus, but going further back has amassed a 6-1 run in the last three years as he continues to place himself firmly in the hunt for title contention.