This past weekend was the second UFC London of 2022 and to say this event fell a tad flat is an understatement. The first card in London this year was in March I think and it has probably been the best MMA event of the calendar year to date. They tried to replicate a lot of that magic again and it just didn't live up to the expectations. There was only 5 finishes in 14 fights and 4 of them were in the last 5 fights of the night. By that point, the energy had just been sucked out of the arena and it didn't feel like the finishes generated that much excitement. Molly McCann's entrance was subdued and it didn't feel like her finish was even that big of a deal. If the pop was there, it didn't really come through on the broadcast for me. Gustafsson was finished, but I think that made everyone a little sad more than actually excited. Paddy's walkout didn't even feel as big and then he got the choke and that was probably as loud as the crowd was all night. The Hermansson fight wasn't really anything all that special and then the main event ended with the unfortunate injury. I was trying to figure out why exactly the event ended up so disappointing and I think I found at least part of the reason. It seems to me like the UFC did a little too much in order to get the UK based fighters wins. Instead of making a great card with fun fights that were going to be competitive like last time, but instead they went a little too far in making stylistic matchups that favored the UK athletes. That led to a lot of fights that just sort of dragged on without being particularly compelling as so many fights were one sided. Even the fights that got finished felt so one sided that no one was particularly excited because they already knew who was going to win. The only two fights, on paper, that felt fun and competitive were the last two. The co-main ended up being noncompetitive and then the main event never really even got started. If that fight got to fully playout however it was going to, I think it would have made the whole event worth it. That fight didn't look like it was going to last more than a few more minutes as both were throwing and landing some really hard shots. However, it went how it went and now we have to figure out where both fighters go from here.
Normally, I take the first section to talk about each fighter's performance, but obviously not enough happened to go over too much. I do have one topic I want to touch on in that regard and that is how aggressive Tom Aspinall was out of the gate. He wasn't afraid in the slightest and obviously, professional fighters aren't afraid of other professional fighters, but what I mean is that he wasn't concerned with being taken down at all. He came right after Curtis Blaydes and was looking to end the fight as quickly as possible. Aspinall looked fast and dangerous in there. I thought Blaydes also looked dangerous. His striking looked like he was potentially ready to stand with Tom for all 25 minutes if he had to. He landed some really hard shots and it looked like one of them actually stunned Aspinall for a quick second. I can't imagine that they could have continued to exchange like that and have the fight last for more than a couple of minutes. Blaydes was going to shoot a takedown at some point, but maybe the success he was having was going to get him to continue to stand.
When it comes to his next fight, I think the path for Blaydes is pretty clear and he recognized as much in the aftermath of the fight. He did still win the fight and it doesn't appear that Aspinall is going to be able run this fight back any time soon, so that really isn't even an option. The UFC trusts Blaydes and they're looking for as many main event caliber fighters as possible these days with how many events they need headliners for. Ciryl Gane vs Tai Tuivasa is the main event on September 3rd, which is about 5-6 weeks from now. Having Blaydes take on the winner of that fight not only makes the most sense, it is really the only thing that makes sense. The next highest ranked fighters other than those two (and Stipe as it looks like he will eventually fight Jon Jones) are Derrick Lewis, Alexander Volkov, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and Chris Daukaus. Blaydes has already fought all four of those guys. Making him against Gane or Tai is clearly the move to make.
As for Tom Aspinall, obviously we have to wait to see what the actual injury is and then how long he will have to be away. It seems likely that he won't be back before the end of the year at the very least. I guess I should make clear that I hope Tom is ok and that he will be able to return soon. It was a pretty concerning scene as he was clearly in a ton of pain on the canvas. The last few injuries we've seen with Brian Ortega and Aleksandar Rakic saw the fighters down, but they looked relatively ok. Aspinall was down and was very uncomfortable, which was a concern. I tore my ACL a handful of years ago and I wouldn't have called it excruciating pain. Obviously, Tom Aspinall has a a much higher pain tolerance than I do as well, so I just hope it isn't something even worse than that. It is hard to say what the division will look like when he returns, but I think it would be smart that he takes a step back from the top 5. I think someone like Chris Daukaus or Jairzinho Rozenstruik would be a solid introduction back into the division after some time away with the injury and potential surgery as well. In the days since, photos have come out where it looks like Aspinall is doing relatively well, which is good to see. Obviously, it still isn't great and he's on crutches, but seeing him having a beer with Curtis Blaydes and then there was a video of him with Molly McCann as well is a good sign. He's at least feeling well enough to try and relax and I'm happy for him. Hopefully it isn't as bad as it looked and he'll be back to normal soon.
What do you guys think? How did you think the fight was going? Did anything surprise you in the brief action we did see? Who do you want to see them fight next? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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