UFC Fight Night 224 Aftermath: Tom Aspinall’s Perfect Performance

This weekend, Tom Aspinall returned to action at London’s O2 Arena after a year in recovery from a devastating knee injury. In 1:13 of work against Marcin Tybura, Aspinall managed to announce his return to the UFC’s heavyweight division and reclaim his spot as one of the sport’s brightest contenders. In today’s Aftermath, we will be taking a look at Aspinall’s performance at UFC Fight Night 224. With a little over a minute to look at, this won’t take long!

Fully Recovered

In UFC Fight Night 224 Beforemath one of the x-factors we discussed that isn’t really quantifiable in a technical sense was Aspinall’s physical recovery. Against Curtis Blaydes last July, he snapped his MCL and a recovery like that has a fighter on the shelf for some time. Mobility was the second question. Aspinall answered all that in the O2.

Against Tybura, Aspinall managed to dart in and out of range, landing at will, and showing off his speed. As mentioned in Beforemath, Aspinall doesn’t do any one specific thing spectacularly. He relies on being a well-rounded fighter with decent punching, a good takedown or two, and either submissions or ground-and-pound. As in the Blaydes fight, we didn’t see anything defensively from Aspinall that answered any questions. Can he wrestle defensively? We don’t know because he sparks everyone and snapped his knee in the one other matchup. The last thing we want is for Aspinall to get to Jon Jones and find out that he has absolutely zero wrestling defense and Jones folds him over like he did Ciryl Gane.

The finish, however, was picture perfect. Aspinall didn’t get too fancy and did not switch to southpaw like we saw in his last two actual fights. He took a karate stance, very similar to Robert Whittaker. This alone makes him unique in the current heavyweight division. He uses his speed and athleticism to find and create openings. That is enough to give most fighters he will face problems.

As Aspinall was in (1) orthodox, he would step in for a jab but instead, he came over the top of Tybura (2) with an elbow. Other angles of this shot will show that despite looking wobbled, the elbow landed on Tybura’s shoulder. But it served a purpose and backed Tybura up, overwhelming and spooking him. We can see that in the very next entry from Aspinall. Tybura would (3) bite on the jab and slap away at it trying to keep Aspinall away. Lowering that hand (4) gives the opening to Aspinall for the right cross and the knockdown.

There is a tendency to overthink things and look for stuff that isn’t there; to find things in blank spaces, but that is a folly and sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade. Overanalyzing this fight is a disservice to Aspinall who put on a truly great performance. He went in, conked Tybura on the noggin and called it a day. The ground-and-pound was enough and Aspinall got the win.

While there is a desire to find the next-next contender for Jones, I would like to see Aspinall dragged into deep waters first. That could mean a rematch with Blaydes or a fight with Jailton Almeida who dives for takedowns like his life depends on it. Jones may or may not be there. If he retires after fighting Stipe Miocic, then heavyweight is wide open. Another such option is Gane who will not fall for punches as easily as Tybura and can bring him to the deep waters if he doesn’t get steamrolled on the ground. Aspinall, a young 30 years old, has a bright future ahead.