In four years competing on the sports’ biggest stage, UFC 304 co-headliner Tom Aspinall has added to his mixed martial arts highlight reel in a big way.
The interim heavyweight champion will return in the co-main event of this weekend’s pay-per-view card at the Co-op Live arena in Manchester, England, where he’s tasked with defending his belt in a rematch against Curtis Blaydes.
Aspinall captured the title with a thunderous knockout of Sergei Pavlovich in their short-notice championship bout on the Madison Square Garden-held UFC 295 card last November.
While perhaps the most destructive of his UFC finishes, it was just the latest in a string of stoppage victories for the Mancunian behemoth, who is yet to require the scorecards inside the Octagon.
To put himself in position to receive the late-notice call eight months ago, Aspinall returned from injury with a bang by knocking out Marcin Tybura just 73 seconds into their London headliner last July.
That marked Aspinall’s second finish in a main event staged in England’s capital. His headline debut came the previous year opposite veteran contender Alexander Volkov, whom the Brit put away with a gruesome Americana lock.
And prior to entering title contention, Jake Collier, Alan Baudot, Andrei Arlovski, and Serghei Spivac all fell to either Aspinall’s strikes or submission prowess.
Ahead of Saturday’s event, the promotion has uploaded a video showcasing Aspinall’s brutal finishes inside the Octagon to its official YouTube channel.
Aspinall will hope to further add to his highlight reel this weekend at UFC 304, where he’ll no doubt get a raucous reception as he walks out in front of fans in his home city for the first time since his professional debut back in 2014.
