Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. The Ultimate Fighting Championship is stacking the
deck for its first jaunt to Europe since 2019. Per the UFC’s broadcast partner of
ESPN on Thursday night,
UFC Fight Night 204 on March 19 in London now has a headliner.
At heavyweight, Alexander
Volkov (34-9) will square off with rising British talent
Tom
Aspinall (11-2) in a five-round affair. Additionally, MMA
Latinoamerica Fight Club broke the news that Paddy
Pimblett (17-3) will be returning to the Octagon as well on
this fight card, but against Rodrigo
Vargas (12-4) and not the recently announced Jared
Gordon.
Volkov will be aiming to make it two in a row at the expense of
Manchester’s Aspinall, as he pulled off a unanimous decision win
over Marcin
Tybura in October 2021 to get back in the win column. Before
the Tybura performance, “Drago” fell short to future interim
titleholder Ciryl Gane
in a five-round verdict that put an end to a win streak with
knockouts of Walt Harris
and Alistair
Overeem. Because his last victory came on the scorecards, the
Russian’s career finish rate dropped just below 75%.
Getting his first headlining opportunity is Aspinall, who will
surge into this top-10 clash with a seven-fight finish streak on
his ledger. The Cage Warriors Fighting Championship export made
it to the UFC in 2020, where he promptly demolished Jake
Collier in 45 seconds. Subsequent drubbings of Alan
Baudot, Andrei
Arlovski and Sergey
Spivak thrust him into this home country headliner. As a pro,
Aspinall has never recorded a win that took longer than 6:09 to
achieve.
The polarizing Pimblett will be stepping into the Octagon for the
second time when he meets Vargas. “The Baddy” made his debut in
September 2021, where he rebounded from a first few tough minutes
to knock Luigi
Vendramini unconscious with a ferocious flurry of fists. Before
joining the UFC, Pimblett captured the CW featherweight strap, and
he successfully defended it once against Julian
Erosa before surrendering it in 2017 and prompting a move up to
155 pounds.
After three tries, Vargas earned his first triumph in the UFC cage
in April 2021 when he topped Zhu Rong by
decision. “Kazula” put an end to a two-fight skid that included a
decision setback to Alex
da Silva Coelho as well as a disqualification against Brok Weaver
when the Mexican fighter threw an illegal knee that ended the
match. A Combate Global vet before joining the ranks of the
UFC, the 36-year-old Vargas posts a high finish rate of 83%.
UFC Fight Night 204 goes down inside the O2 Arena in London on
March 19, in the organization’s first trip to Europe since UFC
Fight Night 163 in 2019 in Moscow. Other key matchups on the card
include a rescheduled heavyweight tilt between Shamil
Abdurakhimov and Sergei
Pavlovich, in which Pavlovich replaces the current headliner
Aspinall. Highly touted prospect Muhammad
Mokaev will also make his promotional debut against Cody Durden
in a match he called for because of Durden’s incendiary post-fight
comments about his former opponent.
