The Severe Spotlight: Tom Aspinall

There is a lot of noise in MMA. Noise about titles. Noise about the level with which an athlete is or is not a draw. Noise about where in the rankings of P4P a fighter should be, if a fighter qualifies for the “GOAT” conversation or any other arbitrary measurement of current relevancy.

Tom Aspinall’s steady ascent through the Heavyweight divisions outer rankings and formal rankings has reflected the demeanour of the man himself. Out of the cage, in the press obligations he conducts he is a softly spoken, jovial man with a level of self-awareness and peacefulness that exudes from his soul. When the cage door closes however, he has never left the second round. He has only been taken to the second round in the UFC by legend Andrei Arlovski.

Generally, a fighters’ ascent through divisions follow a blueprint. They enter the UFC and take a couple of fights with people who are either budding new prospects in the division, or people that are cemented near the lower rungs of the divisional ladder. They then move onto a gatekeeper of the outside 15. Dependant on those results you move onto a ranked fighter or in some cases a well-known veteran, you could be looking here at a main or co-main event of a Tier 3 or 4 show. Win that and you’re off to the races, you’re in the mix with the biggest names in the division and a title shot beckons.

Aspinall followed that blueprint to a T. Building from his debut destruction of Jake Collier, Aspinall built steadily through the lower rankings of the division before fighting a combination of veteran and outside 15 gatekeeper in Arlovski, co-main event against Sergei Spivac rolled nicely into the main event of the UFC’s return to London and a highly ranked name in Alexander Volkov.

Everything was full steam ahead – until the catastrophic misfortune that became of him in the same arena against his first meeting with Curtis Blaydes. That fight was one of the most anticipated matchups in Heavyweight history, and to have it end the way it did was agonising. Rightly, Aspinall takes a small step back in his return against Marcin Tybura. Runs through him.

The vacant title placed in front of him against the scariest man in the division in Sergei Pavlovich, sending him to the shadow realm quicker than he did Tybura. All that context is to say that the noise around Tom Aspinall currently concerning his legitimacy, specifically the legitimacy of his status of Interim Champion of the Heavyweight division is a fallacy. He can only fight who is in front of him, and should Jon Jones choose to deny Aspinall a chance at unification – then we must not look to Aspinall with despair but instead push any frustration toward the UFC/Jon Jones.

Onto the fight.

Aspinall walked into the belly of the arena to a crowd riding high from a Paddy Pimblett first round submission. With Curtis Blaydes standing across from him, a question to answer was how would Aspinall react? Does any of the woes of their previous encounter add hesitancy or pause to his movements? The answer we found out very early on in his 60 second destruction, was no.

Light on his feet and taking command of the centre of the cage Aspinall sizes up the footwork patterns of Blaydes. Blaydes takes a confident inward step to counter the footwork feint of Aspinall, which is respected by the Salford native. Blaydes the aggressor lands two nice jab, straight combinations that force Aspinall to circle out and reset.

Noticing the speed advantage of Blaydes, Aspinall waited for the American to commit to his shots before reacting. The jab comes in, and Aspinall slips the right hand, missing with his own jab he lands with his follow up left hand, having stepped through from southpaw to orthodox to chew up the pocket space. That allows for the swift angle change and barrage of strikes that leads us to first clinch exchange up against the fence. Smart fighting.

Perfect head position allows Aspinall to assess his options, Blaydes has adopted a strong defensive near side wrist grip and Aspinall chooses to remove himself from the clinch, not before landing a short-left hook.

Resetting to the centre, and Blaydes catches him once again. However, Aspinall makes the same reactionary read as he did 30 seconds previously. He resets to southpaw, draws Blaydes in, resetting to orthodox as he slips the Blaydes jab, lands his own clean on the chin and follows up with a destructive right hand over the top that sends Blaydes crashing to the ground.

Aspinall sprints over to his man and crowds him as he turtles. Aspinall does a fantastic job of covering both hips as he rains almighty volumes of ground and pound to the scrambling Blaydes. Having forced him belly down for the second time due to strikes, Marc Goddard steps in and smartly waves off the fight.

Tom Aspinall defends his Interim Heavyweight title and does so against the fighter many felt was the most well rounded outside of Jon Jones. Do we get to see Aspinall unify in the Octagon? It remains to be seen but ensure that we celebrate a man who has amassed an incredible record in the heavyweight division of 8-1, all wins by finish.