On what was a fantastic night of fights, Tom Aspinall announcing his arrival to the true elites of the heavyweight division was probably the biggest development. We had some questions about Aspinall that we thought the matchup with Volkov would be able to answer, but we really didn't get to see most of those answers. Aspinall is every bit as good as we thought he was though and he's set up for a title eliminator fight now. We'll get into who that may be later. As for Volkov, he sort of proved that he is who we think he is, at least on this website. He's a very talented heavyweight who is a problem for most fighters in the world. He just has a problem when it comes to getting over the hump against the truly elite of the division. We knew Aspinall had the talent to be considered amongst the elite, but we were left with some intangible questions. Some we got answered, others we didn't.
When it came to Tom Aspinall's performance, a lot of it was what we expected, but that doesn't make it any less sensational. Aspinall was fast and powerful. His striking was probably as crisp as we have ever seen it and he was mixing in kicks a little more too, which is a good sign for him going forward. His right hand looked particularly impactful as he was landing it early. Even when they were fresh, his power was effecting Volkov in a noticeable way. The athleticism was even more noticeable in his movement. Volkov's length really wasn't a problem for him at all. He was able to move in and out, land his shots, and avoid everything from Volkov really without much of an issue at all. He was avoiding almost all damage defensively. Volkov landed one solid shot the whole fight and Aspinall didn't really even react. What stood out is that Aspinall's wrestling is probably better than a lot of people were giving it credit for. I thought his grappling wasn't being talked about enough coming into this fight, but I didn't expect him to necessarily get takedowns at will either. He was so natural in his ability to time them perfectly and then use his power and speed to finish them off. He almost made them look effortless and, especially at heavyweight, that will be a huge asset for him as he continues to rise. He showed a really good ground game once he was down too. He was transitioning between submission attempts and ground and pound smoothly. As for the questions that we didn't have answered, we still haven't seen him face much resistance and adversity and we don't know how his cardio holds up over 5 rounds, but I'm not going to focus on the negatives after his big win.
It may go without saying, but Aspinall is in a great spot going forward. He's a fresh face in a division that doesn't get new contenders very often. He will at least take Volkov's 6 spot and has the potential to jump Derrick Lewis for the 5 spot as well. What is really interesting is that most of the heavyweight top 10 is open to be booked, so the UFC has the freedom to do almost whatever they want with these matchups in the immediate future. Ciryl Gane, Stipe Miocic, Tai Tuivasa, Derrick Lewis, Curtis Blaydes, and potentially Chris Daukaus are all potential options for him. With Francis Ngannou having just undergone his knee surgery, I expect that we will see an interim title fight at some point, probably in July. Stipe will be one half of that fight as his career resume has earned him that opportunity. After we decide who will be getting that interim title opportunity, all of the title eliminator fights become a lot easier to make. Of course, there is the whole Jon Jones scenario hanging over the division and I'm really not interested in getting into that anymore. If Jon wanted to fight Stipe for the interim belt, that fight would be made and I think we would be hearing something about it. At this point, I'll believe Jon is going to fight when I see him walking to the cage. If I was only to consider the best possible fight to make for Aspinall, I most want to see him against Stipe or Gane. Aspinall is a fantastic all around fighter and I want to see him against someone who is the best possible test for him either in skill or athleticism. Stipe has that same all around skill set and I think is the best possible match for Aspinall. Of course, that means Aspinall would skip the line and find himself right into a title fight, which I'm not is all that likely. The next best option would be to find a heavyweight who can match Aspinall athletically and that is where Ciryl Gane comes into play. I'm not super high on the idea of seeing Gane walk right back into an interim title fight without a win, so I think this is the next highest test for him. Regardless of the result of his fight this weekend, I think Curtis Blaydes would be an interesting fight for Aspinall. That would give Aspinall a fight where he would have another grappler, which is a challenge we haven't seen him take on before. If it was up to me, I would have no problem putting Aspinall in the interim title fight. He's on equal footing with Tuivasa in terms of win streak and he passes the eye test to earn an opportunity at Stipe. If they decide to go with someone else, Gane would be the one for me. I know he called out Tai Tuivasa, but I think we all realize that Aspinall's wrestling would just be too much. I would much prefer to see Tuivasa get another test before having to face someone with the wrestling of Aspinall. I would put him right into the interim title fight if it was my choice, but alas, it is not.
When it comes to Alexander Volkov, this is unfortunately a scenario that he finds himself in a little too often. He's had a hard time stringing together wins once he broke into the upper tiers of the UFC heavyweight division. As for Saturday, it is hard to say Volkov fought poorly in a sense because he didn't necessarily do anything wrong, he just got overwhelmed. The biggest problem was Aspinall's speed, which was expected to some degree. At least for me, the speed gap was even more pronounced than I anticipated. Aspinall looked explosive and Volkov looked really slow. That is the second fight in a row where I thought he really didn't look himself. Volkov was really unable to get anything going offensively. He took a hard right hand on the chin early, so it is possible that hurt him more than we know, but even then, he just looked sluggish. He couldn't get his jab or kicks to land very often at all. His length ended up being a nonfactor because Aspinall was able to react and evade the punches and move into range to land his own. We knew his grappling was his weakness, but his takedown defense isn't really all that bad. However, he never had a chance to stop any of those takedowns as Aspinall timed them perfectly and was able to use his power to finish them with ease. Once he was on his back, that is where Volkov really struggles. I'm not sure if it has to do with his size or not, but his get ups and submissions off his back are probably the weakest part of his game right now. Aspinall delivered some really hard shots on the ground that Volkov toughed out and eventually returned to his feet, only to get taken down again. Aspinall found the submission and that was it. I'm not going to overreact and say that Volkov is terrible or anything because that is simply not true. What we saw is a first hand example of how there is levels to this game and Aspinall was just on another level Saturday afternoon.
Alexander Volkov will have a few bounce back options whenever we see him next. The first one that makes some sense is potentially Chris Daukaus. If Daukaus wins against Blaydes this weekend, he'll be looking for another test and given his loss to Derrick Lewis, I don't think he'll get a top 5 opponent that isn't Tai Tuivasa. I think it makes sense for him to fight Volkov as his next step towards a potential title run of his own. If he loses, it also makes sense because both men will be coming off of a loss and they'll be looking to bounce back while sitting relatively close to each other in the rankings. A similar line of thinking will also connect Volkov to Jairzinho Rozenstruik, who was supposed to be fighting Marcin Tybura in a couple of weeks at UFC 273. Now, Tybura weighed in on Saturday incase Volkov was forced out due to potential political reasons. Tyrbura hasn't weighed in all that close to the limit in awhile, so I don't think he really has to cut weight, but it is unclear if that fight is actually still happening. In either case, I think Rozenstruik and Volkov make a lot of sense for each other and is probably the most likely option in my mind. They're near each other in the rankings and have a similar tendency of alternating wins and losses. What hurts Volkov the most is that he has been hovering in the same range for awhile now. He's already fought a lot of the guys around him in Derrick Lewis, Curtis Blaydes, and Marcin Tybura. If it was up to me, I think the Rozenstruik fight is the one I would look at first, with Daukaus as my second option. Anyone besides them and you're going to be seeing a pretty big jump up for someone lower in the rankings. I guess Serghei Spivac is a possibility? But like I said, that is a reach.
What did you guys think of the fight? Is Tom Aspinall ready for the title shot? If not, who should he fight next? What do you do with Volkov next? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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