Tom Aspinall becomes Britain’s third UFC champion with first-round KO of Pavlovich

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On Saturday evening in New York City, Tom Aspinall became the interim UFC heavyweight champion by delivering a knockout punch to Sergei Pavlovich during the initial round.

At UFC 295, the big highlight was supposed to be Jon Jones defending his heavyweight championship against Stipe Miocic who is known as a great fighter in that division. Unfortunately, that fight had to be called off just two weeks before the event because Jones got hurt while training.

Due to Jones' unfortunate injury, 36-year-old player, the UFC decided to have Aspinall compete against Pavlovich to determine an interim champion. As a result, the Briton emerged victorious at the Madison Square Garden.

Aspinall, who expressed fear before his match with the Russian, landed two precise right hooks on Pavlovich in the opening round. The first blow caused Pavlovich to lose balance while the second one brought him down to the canvas.

The 30-year-old fighter from Wigan finished off Pavlovich, who was already down, with three strong punches and became the third British champion in the UFC.

"It's been an absolutely insane two and a half weeks," Aspinall exclaimed, struggling to hold back tears. "I just want to tell everyone watching at home that if you ever have the opportunity to try something new but are scared, you should definitely go for it. You never know, it could end up being totally worth it."

"He's a very intimidating man. I've never felt so frightened while battling him, but I possess a great deal of strength as well. I have complete faith in myself, truly. Years of hard work have brought me to this point."

Back in 2016, Michael Bisping became the middleweight champion after beating Luke Rockhold by knockout even though he hadn't had much time to prepare. Fast forward to 2022, and Leon Edwards managed to win the welterweight championship by knocking out Kamaru Usman.

We don't know yet if Aspinall will face Jones in their next match or if the UFC will schedule a new fight between Jones and 41-year-old Miocic. If that's the case, Aspinall might have to protect his interim belt in the meantime. However, some people think that Aspinall could become the official champion if Jones is out.

Tom Aspinall, visibly moved, expressed his emotions after winning the UFC interim title.

Aspinall and Pavlovich were competing in the co-main event of UFC 295. However, the original co-main event had to be changed when Alex Pereira won the vacant light-heavyweight title against Jiri Prochazka.

Pereira, who used to be a champion in the middleweight division, recently made history by winning his second title in the UFC. He managed to achieve this feat by securing a TKO victory in the second round of his match. The Brazilian fighter knocked down his Czech opponent with a powerful left hook and followed it up with a series of elbow strikes. As a result, the referee, Marc Goddard, had to intervene and stop the fight.

Even though a few spectators thought that the end of the match was too premature, Prochazka, who was fighting for the first time after surrendering the light-heavyweight title because of an injury last year, disagreed with that idea. He stated, "I think it was correct in the end because I was unconscious."

Check out the complete list of results from UFC 295.

Alex Pereira won a UFC championship in a second category by defeating Jiri Prochazka through a TKO.

Alex Pereira won against Jiri Prochazka by a TKO in the second round using punches and elbows. The match ended at 4 minutes and 8 seconds.

Tom Aspinall won the fight against Sergei Pavlovich by knocking him out with punches in the first round, which took only one minute and nine seconds.

Jessica Andrade knocked out Mackenzie Dern with punches in the second round at the 3 minute and 15-second mark of their fight.

Benoit Saint-Denis emerged victorious over Matt Frevola, scoring a knockout with a head kick just one minute and thirty-one seconds into the first round.

In the first round of the fight, Diego Lopes won by knocking out Pat Sabatini with punches in just one minute and thirty seconds.

Steve Erceg won against Alessandro Costa by unanimous decision with a score of 29-28 for all three judges.

Loopy Godinez emerged victorious over Tabatha Ricci in a close split decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28).

Mateusz Rebecki won his fight against Roosevelt Roberts in the first round by submitting him with an armbar at 3 minutes and 8 seconds into the round.

Nazim Sadykhov and Viacheslav Borshchev battled it out, resulting in a majority draw with scores of 29-28, 28-28, and 28-28.

Jared Gordon defeated Mark Madsen through a first-round technical knockout, finishing the fight at the 4 minute and 42-second mark.

John Castaneda emerges victorious against Kyung Ho Kang with a unanimous decision of 30-27, 30-27, and 30-27.

Joshua Van won by a unanimous decision against Kevin Borjas with scores of 29-28, 29-28, and 29-28.

Jamall Emmers won against Dennis Buzukja in the first round due to a technical knockout at 0:49 seconds into the fight.

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