Unpopular Opinion: Tom Aspinall has no business fighting Sergei Pavlovich or getting a title shot

[AmbassadorFright]

Okay, so I can't bet the only one that thinks Tom is largely unproven. His best win is Volkov who is good has never been contender level. Fought his first contender in Blaydes and nothing happened. It was his first chance to show if he was championship level and literally fuck all happened and while it's debatable if Blaydes is the better fighter it still counts as a loss. Pavlovich just steamrolled Blaydes relatively easily. Aspinall comes back and gets 1 win over a fat old man in Tybura and now everyone is clamoring for him to fight Pavlovich. I can't see any solid argument in him being more deserving than Gane, Almeida or even Blaydes. Yet everyone wants him to dodge those matchups. Gane vs Aspinall is the clear fight to make next

 

[runkar]

Aspinall is quite clearly the real deal. Doesn't really matter if they match him or Gane vs Pav now. They'll all fight eachother sooner or later anyways.

 

[jaberwock555]

If Almeida beats Blaydes, then he is more deserving than Aspinall and Gane.

 

[ComfortablyNumb55]

Aspinall needs to beat Blaydes before anything.

Why isn't it being rebooked?

Of course he doesn't deserve a title shot.

 

[flektarn]

I agree. This is the business of what have you done lately and tybura isn't a good enough win.

 

[RockyLockridge]

if jon wins and retires, it should be gane vs pavlovich

Edit: Almedia vs pavlovich would not bother me either should he beat blaydes

 

[sdpdude9]

If Jones beats Stipe and vacates then you have to have Pavlovich involved for the vacant title. There are 3 real options, Gane, Aspinall, or Blaydes/Almeida winner. I’d put Aspinall over Gane just because Gane has had two title fights already. Blaydes already lost to Pavlovich recently, Almeida would the only one I would put above Aspinall if he beats Blaydes. But Aspinall is no doubt a bigger potential star and he would definitely get the nod.

 

[xentreos]

He's that good. Admittedly Curtis was giving him problems before the weird ending but irregardless this dude is in shape, has skills on the ground and on the feet and only seems to be improving, and he's the best athlete in the division outside of gane.

Idk if he deserves the title fight but he at bare minimum needs to be in the title picture whether that be next on deck or for a number 1 contender fight.

 

[World eater]

He needs at least 1 top 5-6 win. But he clearly shows big potential.

 

[spinup]

Aspinall is great, but calling out Tybura was shooting himself in the foot*. It was setting him back, you don't go fight for the title coming of a loss to Blaydes and a win over Tybura.
He needs a meaningful win to fight for the title: Gane, winner of Blaydes/Almeida, Pavlovich (not for title)

*I do understand that he wanted a tune up fight to feel safe coming off a big injury

 

[downthepines]

Blaydes was looking like he had a great chance of winning that fight. Having watched every form of fighting for years and years and I don't see it as a likely scenario that Tom walks away with that fight with Blaydes. Doubt he ever wins a title.

 

[Bork Neslar]

Ok, thank you for your opinion. It's very relevant for everybody.

 

[Sticko]

Who is calling for Aspinall to get a title shot or fight Pavlovich next?

Pav is clearly next in line for a TS. He's the backup for Stipe vs Jones, and will fight the winner unless the winner retires after the fight.

There's no way Pav agrees to fight Aspinall next. Unless we have a double retirement and Pav needs an opponent to fight for the vacant belt.

I'm on board with seeing Gane vs Aspinwall next although I kind of don't want to see either of them lose.

 

[otis604]

I agree that he is pretty meh at this point in time but the UFC will promote who they want to promote

 

[Edward Henry Greb]

Okay, so I can't bet the only one that thinks Tom is largely unproven. His best win is Volkov who is good has never been contender level. Fought his first contender in Blaydes and nothing happened. It was his first chance to show if he was championship level and literally fuck all happened and while it's debatable if Blaydes is the better fighter it still counts as a loss. Pavlovich just steamrolled Blaydes relatively easily. Aspinall comes back and gets 1 win over a fat old man in Tybura and now everyone is clamoring for him to fight Pavlovich. I can't see any solid argument in him being more deserving than Gane, Almeida or even Blaydes. Yet everyone wants him to dodge those matchups. Gane vs Aspinall is the clear fight to make next

Last I checked, Aspinall actually is in "the fight business" ...

 

[Pierced7681]

First off, Jones/Stipe is all but guaranteed to be a double retirement fight, unless it ends in a very close decision in which both guys will probably want to run it back again.

Gane isn’t going to sniff a title shot anytime soon due to his loss to Francis. UFC will wait until Francis loses in PFL or to Fury so that he’s been devalued before Gane gets another shot at the title.

That leaves Aspinall and Almeida. Aspinall is British, a market they want to promote, and is coming off a flashy ko win over Tybura, whereas Almeida is Brazilian, a market the ufc doesn’t really care about anymore, and he generally wins by smothering on the ground/submission, which isn’t as exciting. Even if Almeida beats Blaydes I don’t see him getting the title shot over Aspinall, just due to marketing alone.

 

[Poirierfan]

Yeah TS, that's more than just unpopular, that's borderline asinine. I have Aspinall as the most well rounded best fighter in the division right now.

 

[Benoitthegr8]

If his career went as planned without the injury, no doubt that he’d be in the mix… unfortunately that was a big set back. I’m in agreement that he’s still a big win away, Id like to see him get a top 5 that would actually make him work for the win and not wilt. Gane, or Almeieda if he wins, or the Blaydes rematch would be ideal. That being said I kinda feel for Curtis, his resume is reading like a murders row, the guy strings a few together and then get knocked back down. Although by HW standards he’s still relatively young, he’s starting to rack up the fight m.ileage

 

[DoubleTrouble]

Okay, so I can't bet the only one that thinks Tom is largely unproven. His best win is Volkov who is good has never been contender level. Fought his first contender in Blaydes and nothing happened. It was his first chance to show if he was championship level and literally fuck all happened and while it's debatable if Blaydes is the better fighter it still counts as a loss. Pavlovich just steamrolled Blaydes relatively easily. Aspinall comes back and gets 1 win over a fat old man in Tybura and now everyone is clamoring for him to fight Pavlovich. I can't see any solid argument in him being more deserving than Gane, Almeida or even Blaydes. Yet everyone wants him to dodge those matchups. Gane vs Aspinall is the clear fight to make next

Blaydes deserves zero shots at the belt. Gets KTFO'd any time he steps up and got a gift against Aspinall via fluke injury.

 

[chaos_36]

If you've ever watched him you'd know he's the future of the Heavyweight division. It's about as clear as Jon Jones was to me after watching the Bonnar fight. Tom may not have the resume yet but he clearly has all the skills needed to be a world champion.