Heavyweights Curtis Blaydes and Tom Aspinall are expected to serve as the main event for the UFC’s upcoming return to London on July 23.
Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the matchup to MMA Fighting with verbal agreements in place for the matchup. Ariel Helwani reported that the fight was discussed first on The MMA Hour ..
For Aspinall, the fight serves as his second consecutive main event at home in the U.K. after he picked up an impressive win over Alexander Volkov in London in March.
Since arriving in the UFC, Aspinall has been perfect with a 5-0 record with all five fights ending by way of knockout or submission. Aspinall will now be facing his greatest test yet against a heavyweight contender.
Blaydes travels to enemy territory in search of his third straight win. He has already defeated Jairzinho Rozenstruik (back-to-back bouts) and Chris Daukaus (side-by-side fights). Overall, Blaydes has gone 6-1 in his past seven fights with the only blemish on his resume coming in a knockout loss to Derrick Lewis in 2021.
Considered one of the toughest outs at heavyweight thanks to his wrestling pedigree, Blaydes will look to add Aspinall to his resume when they clash in July.
Mike Heck helped to create this report.
