‘A beer makes everything feel better’ – Tom Aspinall shares pint with Curtis Blaydes after freak injury 15 seconds into UFC London main event

British heavyweight Tom Aspinall drowned his sorrows with his opponent Curtis Blaydes after their main event match-up at UFC London came to a disappointing end.

Aspinall’s fight with Blades, which had title implications, was over before it really got started as the fan favourite dropped to the floor and clutched his knee after landing a leg kick on his opponent just moments into the bout.

getty

This is the second UFC main event in a row that has ended prematurely due to injury after Brian Ortega suffered a dislocated shoulder in the first round of his featherweight fight against top contender Yair Rodriguez at UFC Long Island last week.

Veteran referee Herb Dean immediately stepped in and waved off the fight after just 15 seconds, disappointing the thousands of fans in the O2 Arena hoping to see the Englishman pick up his sixth UFC win.

The 29-year-old was tended to on the Octagon floor by several doctors over the course of the next five minutes before being loaded onto a stretcher and carted out of the arena in tears.

In a beautiful moment of sportsmanship, Blaydes went to visit his stricken opponent post-fight and the two men shared a beer which apparently softened what was truly a massive blow for the man from Atherton.

@phildefriesmma – instagram

getty

“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,” Aspinall wrote on Instagram alongside a picture of him and Blaydes drinking beer.

The 6ft 5in Brit was riding high coming into UFC London after picking up five stoppage wins since joining the promotion in 2020. In March, he stopped Alexander Volkov inside one round before going on a two-day drinking bender to celebrate.

“I celebrated by being awake for two days [laughs]. There was no way I could have slept. I just accepted the fact I couldn’t sleep and I just drank the whole time. We had a great time afterwards,” Aspinall.

While the severity of Aspinall’s injury is unclear it seems much more likely that these next two days will be focused on assessing the damage, working on a recovery plan and mapping out a route back to title contention after his first UFC defeat.