Curtis Blaydes and Tom Aspinall clash in London, in the main event of the UFC Fight Night 208. The two heavyweights come into this battle with one goal only, which is to win and keep on pushing towards the top of the division. At the moment, Blaydes is ranked fourth among the heavyweights, while Aspinall sits two places lower. The Brit is the favorite, however, but on the other hand, the American has more experience in the fights like this one.
Preview
Curtis Blaydes
The Razor has been in situations like these on several occasions, which is nothing new to him. He fought pretty much all the big names in the division, mostly winning but also losing a few times. He suffered two knockouts against Francis Ngannou and one against Derrick Lewis, in fights that were supposed to launch him towards the title.
Though, on the other side, Blaydes has an impressive list of victims. Junior dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Mark Hunt, Alexander Volkov, all these guys lost to Razor, who was once a very promising young guy. He still is among the best, don’t get us wrong here.
Blaydes is a superb wrestler with an extensive gas tank and the ability to squeeze out the life from pretty much any rival in the division. He takes the battle down to the mat or against the fence, where he works from inside until finding a weak spot, and after that starts to punch his rival until he KOs him. The Razor’s record is 16-3 and one no contest, and eleven of those 16 wins came via KO.
Tom Aspinall
The Brit has been a sensation lately because of his flamboyant performances inside the ring. He has 12 wins and two losses, but both were in his career’s early days. Aspinall has been perfect since joining the UFC, winning five bouts in a row.
All of them were via finish, three KOs and two submissions, and four were inside the first round. Aspinall’s victories were all finishes, nine by way of a knockout and three after a submission. He never reached the third round in his career, and eleven of his victories were in the first five minutes. Now, that is really impressive.
He defeated Jake Collier, Alan Boudot, Andrei Arlovski, Sergey Spivak and Alexander Volkov in his most recent appearance. Aspinall submitted Drago in the first round, which was when he became a true threat to all the other rivals in the division. Volkov is one of the best and most respected fighters, yet Aspinall routinely beat him without any effort.
Prediction
Even though we wrote many praises for Aspinall, our pick here is going to be Curtis Blaydes. The Razor has more experience, and that needs to be counted. This is the biggest fight in the career for the Brit, while Blaydes saw much more prominent names against him. Also, not being appropriately tested in the championship rounds and, to be honest, not facing a guy like Blaydes when it comes to endurance is the second factor in our decision. Do not forget that Blaydes has extremely high stamina and that he never lost on a decision posting five wins.
The combination of these two reasons is why we go with the Razor.
