Heavyweights Curtis Blaydes and Tom Aspinall are expected to serve as the main event for the UFC’s upcoming return to London on July 23.
Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the matchup to MMA Fighting with verbal agreements in place for the matchup. Ariel Helwani first reported the bout was being discussed on The MMA Hour.
For Aspinall, the fight serves as his second consecutive main event at home in the U.K. after he picked up an impressive win over Alexander Volkov in London in March.
Since arriving in the UFC, Aspinall has been perfect with a 5-0 record with all five fights ending by way of knockout or submission. He’ll now face his biggest test to date against a perennial contender at heavyweight.
Blaydes, meanwhile, travels into enemy territory as he seeks his third consecutive win after defeating Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Chris Daukaus in back-to-back fights. Overall, Blaydes has gone 6-1 in his past seven fights with the only blemish on his resume coming in a knockout loss to Derrick Lewis in 2021.
Considered one of the toughest outs at heavyweight thanks to his wrestling pedigree, Blaydes will look to add Aspinall to his resume when they clash in July.
Mike Heck contributed to this report.