A heavyweight main event for UFC Fight Night London on July 23. has been set – with surging promotional-perfect contender, the #6 ranked contender, and recent UFC Columbus main event winner, the #4 rated, Curtis Blaydes set to meet in a headlining slot. The O2 Arena in London, England will host the promotion’s second outing in the country’s capital this year.
Headlining UFC London back in March, Atherton favorite, Tom Aspinall managed to land his fifth organizational victory since his July 2020 landing in the promotion, stopping common-foe, Alexander Volkov with a rather straightforward first round straight armbar victory.
For Blaydes, the former Juco national champion lodged his second consecutive victory to inch closer to title contention back in the main event of UFC Fight Night Columbus in March, stopping Chris Daukaus with a second round knockout. The victory earned Blaydes a Performance of the Night bonus. Ariel Helwani was first to report the main event bout between Tom Aspinall and Curtis Blaydes.
12-2 as a professional, Team Kaobon staple, Tom Aspinall had managed to enjoy a run of two straight wins last year – stopping Sergey Spivak with a relatively comprehensive first round knockout at UFC Vegas 36 last September. Aspinall also submitted former heavyweight champion, Andrei Arlovski – adding the Belarusian veteran to prior UFC wins against both Alan Baudot, and Jake Collier.
16-3(1) as a professional, prior to his knockout success against Daukaus, Blaydes rebounded from a crushing knockout loss to Derrick Lewis with a unanimous decision win over Jairzinho Rozenstruik on the main card of UFC 265 back in September of last year.
Amongst his other Octagon victories, the experienced wrestler, Blaydes, has also bested the likes of Alexey Oleynik, Mark Hunt, Alistair Overeem, Shamil Abdurakhimov, Junior dos Santos, and the above mentioned, Volkov.
Darren Till, a teammate of Tom Aspinall, is expected to co-headline the event
A co-main event bout between one-time welterweight title challenger turned middleweight contender, Darren Till, and former Cage Warriors titleholder, Jack Hermansson has also been verbally agreed to for the event, after the duo teased a summer UK showdown earlier this week.
“UFC London, our source tell us Jack Hermansson vs. Darren Till has verbally agreed to fight at UFC London on 23 July!” MMANYTT posted on Twitter.