UFC Makes History As Paddy Pimblett, Tom Aspinall Star In London

The UFC has pulled off one of its most thrilling events this year.

UFC Fight Night: Volkov vs. Aspinall packed the O2 Arena in London, and the stacked card did not fail to deliver.

It wound up becoming the highest-grossing fight night event in the history of the UFC.

Nine of the 12 bouts ended in finishes, and UFC president Dana White decided to award all nine fighters a $50,000 performance bonus.

“They had already done all the bonuses and they were walking me through it and I was like, ‘F--- it. I’m in such a good mood, give everybody a bonus,’” White revealed at the post-fight press conference via MMA Fighting.

“And they all deserved it,” he added. “Tonight couldn’t have been a better night, you couldn’t write a better script. It couldn’t go any better than it did. The fights were awesome. Everybody fought their ass off. Kids who won, kids who lost.”

In a separate interview with BT Sport, White admitted that after seeing how UFC London played out, he realized that he should’ve put a title fight in it to make it even more spectacular.

“The only thing that kills me tonight is that it would have been awesome for the main event to be Leon [Edwards] and [Kamaru] Usman,” he reflected. “That would have been incredible here. That was the only thing tonight that’s missing if tonight is missing anything.”

Main card headliner Tom Aspinall put on a masterful performance in front of his hometown fans and submitted Alexander Volkov in the very first round.

Another England native who lifted the O2 Arena off the ground with a first-round submission win was lightweight breakout star Paddy Pimblett.

Ricardo “Kazula” Vargas came in prepared and was aggressive in the earlier going. However, “The Baddy” was able to control him on the ground and eventually submitted him via rear-naked choke.

White was pressed by the media to disclose what lies ahead of Pimblett following his sensational display in London.

As per the UFC boss, a main event status could be brewing.

“On my Instagram, I posted the faceoffs yesterday for the heavyweight fight [Aspinall vs. Volkov]. That did 120,000 views,” White told reporters post-fight. “Paddy’s faceoff did 1.3 million. So all the talk going into the fight about his walkout and all this s---, listen, it’s real. This kid’s got a ton of hype behind him, and tonight, he showed everybody that he’s the real deal.”

“I don’t know. I mean, his numbers say yes. He could headline a Fight Night.”