Curtis Blaydes shared a beer with Tom Aspinall, after the latter succumbed to a knee injury in their fight and couldn’t continue
The UFC returned to action for the second time this year in the UK, after a massive blockbuster event earlier this year. The event lacked the in terms of ‘knock your socks’ moments, like the last time around, where it was highlight reel after highlight reel. Still the card delivered with local stars putting on a spectacle, capped off by an anti climatic end to the main event.
In the main event, Tom Aspinall had promised to push the pace from the beginning, and so he did. Truthful to his words, Aspinall was the early aggressor, trying to catch his American opponent with some wild shot, right off the back. However, Curtis stood his ground, and waited for the opportune moment to capitalize. He managed to land some really good shots when Aspinall over-committed to his striking.
During one of these exchanges, Aspinall landed a strong leg kick on Curtis, who barely checked it. A left-hand follow-up gazed past the chin of Aspinall, but the English man was down before anything more could happen. Looked like he blew his knee out. An anti-climatic end to what was an anticipated clash.
For the first time the entire night, the crowd cheered for a visibly distressed Blaydes, who didn’t the fight to end in that manner. He stated that he had travelled to the other side of the world to test his skills against another skilled opponent, but the fight had an unfortunate ending.
However, he shut down the idea of a rematch in the post fight interview in which he said,
“I have no idea what happened. He landed the kick, I went to counter, he dropped. That’s all I know. I’m frustrated. No one wants to win like that. I get the win, I hold my ranking. I get the money, but without a highlight, did it even happen? Did the fight even happen?”
“I’m not risking my ranking (with a rematch),” Blaydes said. “I won the fight. Heading into this fight I envisioned the winner, which is me, would be fighting the winner of Tuivasa and Gane. So I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to fight those guys when it’s right there to wait for Tom Aspinall to heal and run it back.”
Curtis Blaydes went to check on Tom Aspinall after the fight, and shared a beer with him
Blaydes was all class in his post fight interview, and the usually rambunctious crowd took notice. They applauded for Curtis, and the night came to an end in an abrupt manner.
The American heavyweight fighter and his team went to check on Tom Aspinall’s injury, and shared a beer with him. The English fighter posted a picture on his Instagram handle with Curtis, and captioned the post, ‘‘A beer makes everything feel better. What a guy, big Curtis and his team popped up to say hello. Freak accidents happen unfortunately, tonight wasn’t my night. Love u all xx”
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