One of the factors that played a role in the defeat of Sergey Pavlovic in the fight against Tom Aspinall, was the size of the octagon, which was used at UFC 295 in New York, according to the former opponent of the Russian, Curtis Blades.
“Let’s start with the fact that I was betting on Aspinall to win, but I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly,” MMAJunkie quoted “Razor” as saying. “I thought he would surpass Pavlovic in technique and prove himself as a smarter puncher. That said, I expected Sergey to be much more aggressive – that was very important for him – but he let Aspinall feint and move around. He gave him space.”
“That’s one of the main differences between fighting in the Apex Arena and using a standard octagon. There’s more space and it’s a lot harder to be aggressive. I think that was the beginning of the end when he let Aspinall move freely and find himself.”
Recall that the fight for the interim UFC heavyweight championship belt, which became the second most important event of the numbered event, ended as early as 68 seconds with the defeat of the Russian by knockout. Prior to that, Sergey Pavlovich had six first-round knockout victories, most recently defeating Curtis Blades at the Apex Arena in Las Vegas.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/33221-byvshij-sopernik-nazval-prichinu-porazheniya-sergeya-pavlovicha.html?rand=19907
