London, England — This weekend, 10th ranked heavyweight Marcin Tybura will take on the returning Tom Aspinall atop UFC London.
Tybura (24-7) has won seven of his last eight fights, with his last two coming by way of decision. Aspinall though on the other hand has been out for a full year, with his last fight being another main event in London where he suffered a devastating knee injury versus Curtis Blaydes.
On the lead up to this heavyweight main event, there have been a lot of questions from the fans on whether Marcin Tybura is worthy of a big main event spot, in what is likely a title eliminator bout. Not only that, but Aspinall admitted that the UFC had their reservations on booking Tybura for a main event.
Tybura though has outlined the fact that he intends to drag Aspinall into deep waters, as the Brit has never gone to the scorecards. “The key is for sure to drag him into deep waters,” Tybura told media outlets including Cageside Press during Thursday’s UFC London media day. “I don’t know about going to the further rounds, it’s something unknown for sure how Tom will look in the fourth and fifth rounds but I’m not sticking to the plan that he’ll get tired and I will finish him.
“I just want to go hard right from the beginning because if I have to make him tired, I’ll get tired too and I don’t want to just satay there and wait for him to get tired.”
One of the areas that Tybura seemingly believes he has an advantage, is in the clinch and on the ground. The Polish fighter has registered seven submission wins during his career and has always had a tendency to be able to grind on his opponents.
Despite that, the 37-year-old admitted that Aspinall is “very good” on the ground and outlined the Brit as a very high level grappler. “I saw his impressive performance against Alexander Volkov so he is very good. I knew his ground game is on such a high level before, I spoke with some people from Poland who have trained with Aspinall and yeah, we’ll see. I don’t feel uncomfortable to go to the ground with Tom, don’t forget about my skills there too. We’ll see how it plays out.”
Watch the full UFC London media day appearance by Marcin Tybura above.
