The recently announced London, England UFC card will see Tom Aspinall take on Alexander Volkov in a heavyweight headliner bout expected to take place March. 19 inside the famous O2 Arena.
News of the reported match-up was first revealed by UFC president Dana White, who announced the heavyweight tilt to ESPN on Thursday. A day earlier, the promotion also announced their return to London, England on March. 19.
A former Cage Warriors star, Aspinall has made quite the impression in the UFC in a short amount of time. The tactical heavyweight has managed to go unbeaten in all four of his UFC fights. Meanwhile, Alexander Volkov has seen and fought many looks while competing inside the octagon.
“UFC’s return to London on March 19 has a heavyweight main event, per Dana White. England’s Tom Aspinall will face Alexander Volkov. Who you got?” ESPN’s Brett Okamoto shared.
Brief Look At Tom Aspinall & Alexander Volkov
This will be Volkov’s first fight since earning a convincing unanimous decision against Marcin Tybura. Volkov has faced the who’s who in the UFC heavyweight division. Prior to facing Tybura, the tall heavyweight was tasked with facing current interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane.
The fight was a tactical chess match, and while Volkov put up a good fight, he was unable to pick up on Gane’s tempo. Gane felt comfortable enough to potshot the taller athlete from the outside without ever getting into serious trouble. Interestingly, that will likely be the same plan he takes into UFC 270 tomorrow when he aims to unify the heavyweight title against Francis Ngannou.
Despite losing against Gane, Volkov had clearly made improvements since entering the promotion. Along his way up the ranks, “Drago” faced Walt Harris and Alistair Overeem consecutively and finished both by overwhelming the foes with strikes. Harris and Overeem crumbled in the second round to the hands of Volkov, though Aspinall presents a much more unique challenge than most.
Aspinall caught the attention of most of the heavyweight roster after his 2021 victory against former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski. After slapping on a rear-naked choke and securing the major win, the Englishman was presented with another stiff challenger, Sergey Spivak. Once again, Tom Aspinall proved that his style is unlike most in the heavyweight division and earned a TKO victory against Spivak. With accurate striking and a dangerous ground game, he might be among the new breed of cerebral heavyweights coming up in the sport.
Regardless, a fight between Aspinall and Volkov sounds like it would answer questions fans have for both fighters. Can Volkov still make a run for the title? Or is Aspinall truly the new breed of elite heavyweights destined for UFC gold?
With the addition of Tom Aspinall vs. Alexander Volkov, here is an updated lineup for the UFC event scheduled to take place in London, England on March 19:
- Tom Aspinall vs. Alexander Volkov
- Jack Shore vs. Timur Valiev
- Jake Hadley vs. Allan Nascimento
- Luana Carolina vs. Molly McCann
- Muhammad Mokaev vs Cody Durden
- Makwan Amirkhani vs. Mike Grundy
- Sergei Pavlovich vs. Shamil Abdurakhimov
