One of England’s top UFC prospects gets to headline the promotion’s return to London.
The UFC’s first show in London since 2019 has its main event.
Dana White told ESPN on Thursday that English heavyweight prospect Tom Aspinall is set to face former Bellator heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov on March 19th at The O2 Arena. Aspinall was originally scheduled to fight Shamil Abdurakhimov at this event, but apparently there was a change of plans and now the #10 ranked Aspinall gets #5 Volkov.
Aspinall (11-2) has been sensational in his four UFC appearances, picking up three Performance of the Night bonuses along the way. The former BAMMA and Cage Warriors fighter has recorded stoppages of Jake Collier, Alan Baudot, Andrei Arlovski, and most recently Sergey Spivak. This will be Aspinall’s first career five-round fight.
Volkov (34-9) is coming off a unanimous decision over Marcin Tybura at UFC 267 in October. The Russian fought two other times in 2021, knocking out Alistair Overeem in a February main event before dropping a five-round decision to eventual interim champ Ciryl Gane in June. While Aspinall has won all of his fights by stoppage, ‘Drago’ has only been stopped by Derrick Lewis and Vitaly Minakov over his lengthy career.
Tickets for UFC London go on sale February 4th.