Matches to Make After UFC London
Lev PisarskyJul 22, 2023
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to London with a card featuring numerous UK notables, including the long-awaited comeback of Tom Aspinall. Aspinall had begun his UFC heavyweight career a perfect 5-0, impressing everyone with his outstanding grappling and increasingly potent striking. And his victories weren't just coming against low-level foes, as he had dominant first round stoppages of top contenders in Sergey Spivak and Alexander Volkov. Aspinall fought perennial Top 5 heavyweight Curtis Bladyes on July 23, 2022 but succumbed to an awful knee injury just 15 seconds into the contest. Now returning almost a year to the day, he sought to get back on track against Polish veteran Marcin Tybura. An excellent grappler in his own right, Tybura's striking and chin have always been lacking, but only the best heavyweights have managed to take advantage, with Tybura amassing an impressive 11-6 record in the UFC, including winning his last two outings, verdicts over Alexander Romanov and Blagoy Ivanov. It would be a stern test to see whether Aspinall had fully recovered.
Aspinall passed with flying colors at UFC Fight Night 224, needing just 73 seconds to knock out Ty-bura. He hurt him badly with the same gorgeous right elbow that he had caught Spivak with and then finished him off with punches. The London crowd roared its approval, and the heavyweight division welcomed back one of its very best fighters.
In other significant bouts, Paul Craig, who holds a first-round submission over Jamahal Hill and a last-second submission (literally!) of Magomed Ankalaev, dropped down from light heavyweight to middleweight to face No. 14 ranked middleweight Andre Muniz. Muniz won the first round, but Craig again displayed the uncompromising toughness and resourcefulness that had allowed him to win so many seemingly hopeless battles, battering Muniz with elbows to finish him in the second stanza.
Lastly, a top women's bantamweight contenders match was buried deep in the prelims when No. 4 Ketlen Vieira faced No. 7 Pannie Kianzad. Kianzad's grappling has improved a lot over the years, but it wasn't enough against the talented Brazilian judoka, as Vieira repeatedly took her down and kept her there, taking the easy decision.
In the event's aftermath, here are three solid fights that can be booked, whether in London or elsewhere.
Aspinall announced his intentions to fight the winner of this UFC Paris main event clash in September, and it makes complete sense. Obviously, Aspinall will be hoping the winner is Gane, who is ranked No. 2 and a two-time title challenger. That would be a great title eliminator between two of the most light-footed, agile heavyweights out there, despite both men being at least 6' 4” and 245+ pounds. Obviously, Gane would want to keep it standing and work his kickboxing while Aspinall would be looking to grapple or land his devastating elbow at close range. However, a rematch against Spivak would also make plenty of sense were he to emerge victorious. Spivak is 28 and improving all the time with both his striking and grappling. If he could beat Gane, that would make for an incredible four-fight winning streak since losing to Aspinall, with ruthless stoppages of three straight deadly strikers in Greg Hardy, Augusto Sakai and Derrick Lewis coming into the contest.
No. 10 ranked Hermansson is a logical next opponent for Craig, who just beat the No. 14 ranked Muniz. The two have many similarities. Both are 35 years old and incredibly dangerous grapplers with brutal top games in terms of submissions and ground-and-pound, alike. Both are willing to strike on the feet but have questionable chins, and in Craig's case, defense. However, despite being evenly matched, this should be still be plenty exciting, as neither man is remotely cautious with their approach in any arena of combat, taking large risks. Craig's win over Muniz and Hermansson's past confrontations against Thales Leites, Ronaldo Souza, David Branch, Marvin Vettori and Roman Dolidze, among others, clearly show how exciting their fights against fellow grapplers can be.
This would be a logical title eliminator for women's bantamweight between the current No. 3 and No. 4 ranked fighters. Vieira has a split decision loss to No. 2 Raquel Pennington, though most analysts and fans alike had it for the Brazilian. From an entertainment standpoint, Silva has recorded many submissions, but has frequently done so from the bottom, being taken down numerous times throughout her time in the UFC. Will she be able to tap Vieira, a very good grappler with better wrestling who has never been submitted in her career?