London — “Everything I dreamed of and more,” was how Tom Aspinall put fighting in front of the English fans at UFC London.
To that point, Aspinall had never fought in front of a crowd during his UFC tenure. He entered the promotion in the pandemic era, with empty arenas in Abu Dhabi and Las Vegas playing host to all four of his previous fights for the company.
The fifth time was something else entirely. Aspinall’s win in Saturday’s main event, a straight arm-bar against an already bloodied Alexander “Drago” Volkov, was one final chance for the UK faithful to blow the roof off the arena.
After the bout, Aspinall made a smart callout of fellow rising star Tai Tuivasa. Both men are part of the new wave of heavyweights climbing the division’s rankings.
“The reason why I called out Tai is, first of all, I’m a massive fan of his style,” Aspinall (12-2) explained following the fight, back stage at the O2 Arena. “Second of all, massive fan of his personality. And the crowd goes wild when he fights, and apparently, the crowd goes wild when I fight. So me and him in the UK, come on bro, what a good time that would be. Let’s line it up. Next UK card, get me and Tai on it, please.”
That could be sooner rather than later. In his own post-fight appearance, UFC President Dana White confirmed the promotion would return to the UK this year.
Of course, a fight with Tuivasa means the potential of a shoey — and Aspinall is down. “I’m a shoey virgin at the moment, but if Tai wants to do one, I will. Big shout out to Tai for doing his thing with the shoey. I saw too he’s making money off that as well, so respect man.”
Watch the full UFC London post-fight press scrum with Tom Aspinall above. More coverage can be found below.
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