Post covid, there were a lot of question marks over the future of the UFC’s abroad shows. Lots of countries shut their borders and Dana White publicly said he was struggling to find locations.
But, in early 2022, UFC London was booked for the O2 arena on March 19th: Alexander Volkov vs Tom Aspinall.
The rest of the card was made up of Arnold Allen, Paddy Pimblett, Molly McCann and Ilia Topuria vs Jai Herbert.
The event was a resounding success. A massive 9 performance of the night award were given out to each of the fighters who got themselves a finish on the card including main event hero Tom Aspinall who finished Volkov in the very first round.
The success of the event led the UFC to rebook the event, this time for July 23rd headlined by Curtis Blaydes vs Tom Aspinall. This time, we saw the likes of Hermansson, Chris Curtis, Paddy Pimblett, Gustafsson, Krylov, Molly McCann and Paul Craig.
17,813 people stormed the O2 arena to watch the fights, it was another massively successful event in London. The crowd erupted when fighters such as Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann somehow bettered their last performance with a submission and knockout win respectively.
Although the event didn’t hit the highs of the first event, it was enough for the UFC to want to come back to the United Kingdom.
Maybe it wasn’t supposed to be this weekend, but when Leon Edwards landed that head kick to knock out the pound-for-pound number 1 fighter in Kamaru Usman, all eyes set onto London as a potential venue.
This time, it’s not a fight night, its a PPV and the UFC have stacked it. Edwards vs Usman 3 headlines with Gaethje vs Fiziev as a more than deserving co-main. The rest of the main card is filled with Marvin Vettori, Roman Dolidze, Casey O’Neill, Jennifer Maia, Gunnar Nelson and Bryan Barbarena.
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