The
Ultimate Fighting Championship is making the unorthodox
decision of having an interim champ defend their throne.
In the co-headliner of
UFC 304 on July 27, Tom
Aspinall (14-3) will collide with Curtis
Blaydes (18-4, 1 NC) once again, this time for the interim
heavyweight strap. The two first met at UFC Fight Night 208 in
2022, and Aspinall blew his knee out in 15 seconds to suffer the
loss. While Jon Jones is
currently the division’s disputed champ, the promotion opted to
have Aspinall defend while keeping Jones available to presumably
face Stipe
Miocic at some future date. The Aspinall-Blaydes rematch
booking was first announced
on Thursday by the UFC, putting together a likely main card for the
Co-op Live pay-per-view offering in Manchester, England.
Greater Manchester native Aspinall burst onto the scene in the
UFC’s heavyweight class by demolishing five straight foes in the
span of less than two years. Aspinall wrecked Jake
Collier and Alan Baudot
in under two minutes each, tapped Andrei
Arlovski, ran through Sergey
Spivak and landed a rare straight armbar on Alexander
Volkov to cement himself a contender. When the first Blaydes
bout did not go his way, the 31-year-old bounced back a year later
to smash Marcin
Tybura, and he claimed interim gold by smoking Sergei
Pavlovich in 69 seconds in November 2023. This will be the
first time an interim beltholder has had to defend since Renan Barao
fought Eddie
Wineland at UFC 165 in 2013.
Despite serving as a contender at heavyweight for years, this will
be Blaydes’ first attempt to hoist a strap in the Octagon. Multiple
title eliminator-type matchups did not go his way, including a pair
of beatdowns from Francis
Ngannou, a stunning knockout from Derrick
Lewis and a meeting with Pavlovich that ended poorly. The
former NJCAA wrestler out of Harper College currently maintains the
UFC heavyweight division’s record for most takedowns landed at 62,
and he is only six away from doubling Cain
Velasquez’ 34 in the no. 2 spot.