Tom Aspinall expected more from UFC Fight Night 255.
Aspinall was in attendance for Saturday’s event at The O2 in London, where Sean Brady silenced the English crowd with a dominant submission of Leon Edwards in the main event. The co-main event featured a pivotal light heavyweight clash, where Carlos Ulberg outpointed Jan Blachowicz for a decision win.
The Fight Night event was perhaps not as stacked as previous U.K. shows, which featured the likes of interim heavyweight champion Aspinall, fan favorite Paddy Pimblett, and top contender Arnold Allen. Even Michael Page is yet to compete in the U.K. since signing with the UFC.
Aspinall wasn’t feeling the intensity from the crowd throughout the night.
“To be honest, I feel like U.K. MMA needed a big night at The O2,” Aspinall said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “I was looking through the card top to bottom, and obviously there’s a lot of names on there, U.K. guys, that people worldwide won’t be familiar with. But I know them because I’ve seen them come up on the local scene through Cage Warriors and all the rest of it.
“There were a couple of matchups on there where I was like these aren’t the best-known guys in the world, but this is going to be a banger, and it’s going to bring some excitement. And to be honest with you, it was just flat as hell in The O2 Arena on Saturday night. I was quite disappointed because I don’t know, we needed something.”
The 13-fight card featured no knockout wins, and only one finish in the first eight fights courtesy of Shauna Bannon. The event wound up having just four total finishes, all by submission.
“A couple of years ago, U.K. MMA was absolutely banging,” Aspinall continued. “We’ve still got so much talent, but we just need that excitement, and the last few shows in The O2, we just haven’t had it unfortunately. I don’t know why that is, but it just isn’t flowing the way it was a couple of years ago.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 255.
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