Picture Credit: Twitter
English heavyweight Tom Aspinall was forced to withdraw after 15 seconds of his Ultimate Fighting Championship main event against American Curtis Blaydes on Saturday. The sixth-seeded fighter from Atherton in Greater Manchester fell to the mat in pain after he injured his knee during the opening exchanges of the fight at London's O2 Arena.
As per reports, Aspinall attempted a typically fast start and landed an early kick to the thigh of the fourth-placed Blades, but he buckled after putting his foot in and was unable to continue. Notably, the fight between both the heavyweight contenders was a highly-anticipated contest but had an unfortunate ending. However, UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou has expressed his thoughts over the injury of Aspinall during his fight against Curtis Balydes at UFC Fight Night 208.
Taking to Twitter he wrote, "Unfortunate ending to #UFCLondon , hope Aspinal recovers well. Put some DAMN respect on CURTIS name," wrote Francis Ngannou." Notably, Ngannou is currently recovering from leg surgery, which he had after his fight with Ciryl Gane at UFC 270.
Speaking of UFC Fight 208, Curtis Blaydes and Tom Aspinall went neck-to-neck in the main event but the bout could not go further as Aspinall suffered a horrific leg injury in the opening second of the first round. Aspinall's injury resulted in the stoppage of the contest as Blaydes was declared the winner by TKO. Coming into the fight, Aspinall was on an eight-fight winning streak, while Balydes had won his last two bouts.
Post-injury, Aspinall shared a picture of his opponent and expressed his gratitude towards Balydes for the nice gesture as the latter came to visit the injured fighter in his hotel room with his crew. Aspinall shared the picture with the opponent Curtis Blaydes holding a beer. In his caption, he stated that everything got better with a beer and stated that it was not his night to win.