In the early 1960s, four friends from England came together and thrilled the world with their fantastic music. The Beatles in that decade became arguably the most iconic band of all time.
On Saturday at the O2 Arena, four young Britons appeared together on a fighting card. While not as story-changing as the Beatles’ debut, Tom Aspinall, Paddy Pimblett, Arnold Allen and Molly McCann on Saturday brought mixed martial arts to new heights in Britain.
The British won all their UFC matches in the end, all in impressive ways. In the main event, the Aspinall saw every piece of the star on which he was hyped dominated by Alexander Volkov and he finished with a straight armlock at 3:45 of the first.
In the Co-Main, the somehow underrated and underrated Allen stopped Dan Hooker in 2:33 of the first to win his 11th straight and his ninth in a row in the UFC to raise his MMA record to 18-1.
Pimblett, the cocky and colorful lightweight, overcame early misfortune against Rodrigo Vargas for giving him the lead at 4:25.
And McCann, like Pimblett (and the Beatles) of Liverpool, finished Luana Carolina with a nasty twisting elbow, which was perhaps the biggest moment of a fantastic card.
People rarely sat down Saturday, engaged in the fantastic battles that took place, with each of the nine fighters ready to earn a $ 50,000 post-fight bonus.
Britain has long produced elite boxers, and one of them, ex-United heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, has been watching from Ringside. But despite Michael Bisping winning the UFC’s middleweight title and being inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, it was not a hotbed for big mixed martial artists.
That seems to be changing, however, with the four fighters from England leading the charge.
The aspinal is simply ingenious, and unlike most of his peers, he is thoughtful and introspective, and not susceptible to horrible and hyperbolic trash talk like Pimblett.
But he showed against the sixth-ranked Volkov the kind of skills he could bring to the Promised Land. He is 6-foot-5 and weighed 253 pounds on Saturday, but showed great agility and dexterity.
He was far too fast for Volkov, both in wrestling and on strike. The finishing sequence came as Aspinall used his speed to slip a header into a right by Volkov in the transition to a double-legged takedown.
The aspinal briefly looked to its corner for instructions and then quickly maneuvered into the armlock, forcing the valve. He reached the finish line at 3:45 and is unlikely to rise any worse than the No. 6 in the UFC rankings when they come out on Tuesday.
He is a clear blue-chipper, in contrast to Bisping, who was best known for his grit and attitude. Bisping was a massive underdog for Luke Rockhold when he won the title and he was better known for his trash and irritating opponents than he was for his skills.
Aspinall and Allen are absolutely the right deal. McCann is a step below them, though it’s hard to criticize her work after she put on a show and had the moment of the night with the spinning elbow KO who had Carolina flat on her back for some gruesome moments in the cage left.
A former Cage Warriors champion, Pimblett has the talking part down. But while he is clearly a quality fighter, it is far from certain that he is as talented as either Aspinall or Allen.
He takes Conor McGregor’s approach from McGregor’s early UFC days. But while McGregor spoke well and was extremely funny, he also proved to be an elite fighter with excellent power as well as speed and agility.
Pimblett points out weaknesses that could keep him in the deep and full lightweight division. He is nowhere near ready for champion Charles Oliveira or challengers like Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, Islam Makhachev, Beneil Dariush and Tony Ferguson among others.
The men would play with him as children pull the wings of a beetle at this point. He can evolve into that kind of fighter, but he’s not there yet. But give the man credit: he was in a bad position against a certain opponent and turned it around and got a submission. The pressure on him was massive when one considers the attention he received, and he went through.
Allen’s only problem is competing in a division that may be the best in the UFC, where Alexander Volkanovski is the champion and Max Holloway, Brian Ortega, Yair Rodriguez, Chan Sung Jung, Calvin Kattar and Josh Emmett are the Fighters classified before him. Giga Chikadze, Bryce Mitchell and Dan Ige are right behind him.
But Allen, from Ipswich, England, did simple and short work of Hooker, a quality veteran who has a number of big wins on his record. All driven by Hooker as easy as anyone has ever been and, like Aspinall, look very much like a future champion.
Having a star fighter often helps to generate interest in the sport in a particular country and the development of other fighters. These four will do more for British MMA with their success than Dana White ever could by talking about how great the sport is.
It is possible that none of the four won a title when Bisping finished it. The heavyweights are loaded at once, with champion Francis Ngannou leading a group that includes Ciryl Gane, Stipe Miocic, Tai Tuivasa, Derrick Lewis and soon to be ex-lightweight heavyweight champion Jon Jones. That’s a lot of quality.
Featherweight is filled with standouts and there could be as many as six Hall of Famers in the lightweight division (Oliveira, Gaethje, Poirier, Makhachev, Ferguson and McGregor).
McCann’s victory made it 5-3 in the UFC, and she’s not ranked yet, so it’s a long climb.
That said, they burned the motivational fire among a number of young men and women Saturday. McGregor went to UFC 92 to watch Tom Egan, and that inspired him to go hard after MMA success. Aspinall and Pimblett said they also encouraged fans to train by watching cards in person and on television.
Their contributions to sport, especially in England, will be immense, and it will be more than just with what they do in the cage.
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