Tom Aspinall will face his toughest test to date when he takes on Curtis Blaydes in the main event of this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 208. This heavyweight bout will take place in Aspinall’s home country at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Tom Aspinall will face his toughest test to date when he takes on Curtis Blaydes in the main event of this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 208. This heavyweight bout will take place in Aspinall’s home country at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Curtis Blaydes vs Tom AspinallLatest Odds & Fight Info |
|
---|---|
Main Event odds | Blaydes +112 at Nags.bet | Aspinall -132 at Nags.bet |
When | Saturday, July 23 – main card from 7pm BST |
Where | O2 Arena, London |
Watch Live | ESPN+ (US), BT Sport (UK), ESPN (AU), UFC Fight Pass |
Tom Aspinall will face his toughest test to date when he takes on Curtis Blaydes in the main event of this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 208. This heavyweight bout will take place in Aspinall’s home country at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Tom Aspinall (12-2-0) picked up a first-round submission win over Alexander Volkov in March to improve to 8-0-0 over his last eight fights with a 5-0-0 record in the UFC. Aspinall has skyrocketed up the heavyweight rankings to No.6 in the division as all five of his UFC wins have come by stoppage (three knockouts and two submissions) and four of them have earned Performance of the Night bonuses. None of Aspinall’s 12 career fights have ever reached the judge’s table with nine knockout wins, three submission wins, one submission loss and one disqualification.
Curtis Blaydes (16-3-0) also won a Performance of the Night bonus in his last fight for his knockout win over Chris Daukaus in March. Blaydes is 11-2 over his last 13 fights with his only two losses over that stretch coming via knockout against Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis. Blaydes is an elite grappler that can neutralize his opponents’ offense with his ground game, and his ground-and-pounding skills have led to 11 of his 16 career wins coming by knockout.
Aspinall has passed every test he’s been given thus far in the UFC with flying colors. If he passes this one, he’ll likely make his way into the top five in the heavyweight division and be knocking on the door for a UFC Heavyweight Championship title fight. And getting by Blaydes won’t be easy, especially if the veteran is able to get him down on the ground early.
While Blaydes is an extremely talented fighter and is a tempting one to take as an underdog, there are a few factors working against him here. The home crowd in London will be heavily rooting for Aspinall, which could feed into his early-fight adrenaline. But more importantly, Blaydes has had some issues with heavy hitters in the past as all three of his professional losses have come by knockout. Blaydes is good enough to grind out a win if the fight goes his way, but we see Aspinall adding another impressive knockout win to his resume.