This past Saturday in the headliner of UFC London, we saw a battle between two top ten heavyweights. England’s Tom Aspinall (13-3) was making his return as he was taking on a tough test in Marcin Tybura (24-8).
Tybura entered the UFC all the way back in 2016 with a 13-1 record. The former M-1 heavyweight champion entered the octagon with a decent amount of hype, but he didn’t get off to the start he wanted to inside the octagon. Overall, Tybura would go just 4-5 in his first nine fights inside the octagon.
However, in 2020, he really started to turn things around. He went a perfect 3-0 that year and entering the octagon at UFC London, he was 7-1 in his last eight fights. Stylistically, Aspinall was a tough matchup, but Tybura has proven to be a tough out over the last few years.
However, it was not meant to be on Saturday night. Just a little over a minute into the first round, Aspinall caught Tybura flush with a right straight. He went down and Aspinall followed up with ground and pound to get the TKO win.
What’s next after UFC London?
This is certainly a disappointing result for Tybura who had a big opportunity to play spoiler on Saturday night for Aspinall’s return. You could tell how much it meant to Tybura as well as he came in, in probably the best shape he’s come into a fight since joining the promotion.
Now that he’s suffered this loss, what should the UFC do with him next? Well, he’s in a bit of a tough spot considering the contenders ranked around him. However, there’s one fight that just seems to make all the sense in the world. That’s a fight with Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
These two were scheduled to fight twice last year and the fight fell through both times. Considering where they are in the division and the fact that they are both coming off disappointing first round losses, it just makes all the sense in the world to pair them against each other.