Pavlovich is better than Aspinall and I'm willing to die on that hill. Long live the Taisumov of HW!
Don't agree with that, Aspinall is a weird one because he has two stupid early-Anderson Silva type losses on his career before he blew up soon after and became hot property.
Still, Aspinall is always talking like he needs more time, like he has to develop - this narrative is very similar to the one employed by Sean O'Malley, but the reality is in the UFC so far he's looked like he's been playing with his food.
He totally overwhelmed Collier and Baudot, and he'll never fight at that level again. Against Arlovski, he dominated him and made it look like a practice session, where the focus was on surprising the wily old vet - and again, it looked so easy for him.
Spivak I thought would be a better contest because he's also relatively young, strong, and has a decent résumé, but he trashed Spivak as well.
I actually would have liked to see Aspinall vs Pavlovich here, but it's a fight I think we'll see down the line.
What I don't get is why Aspinall was climbing the rankings nicely, pitched against a guy 2 places higher, then gets withdrawn from the fight. It seems clear to me that Shamil isn't good enough to compete with either Aspinall or Pavlovich, but what does Aspinall get now that makes more sense than Shamil?
I wonder if he headlines against Volkov, but it's a big step up.
