Interim heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall vs. Curtis Blaydes set for UFC 304 co-main event
It’s been a couple months, but Curtis Blaydes got the answer he was hoping for.
In March, Blaydes (18-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) took out Jailton Almeida with a second-round TKO at UFC 299 in Miami. Afterward, he said he wanted a shot at interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall.
Thursday, UFC CEO Dana White announced Blaydes (18-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) has what he wants: a rematch with Aspinall (14-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) at UFC 304 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+), which is set for July 27 in Manchester, England.
Blaydes and Aspinall first fought in July 2022 in London. Just 15 seconds into the fight, Aspinall blew out his knee and Blaydes had a TKO win without doing anything. After a year away, Aspinall returned and stopped Marcin Tybura in 73 seconds, then needed just 69 seconds to win the interim heavyweight title against Sergei Pavlovich this past November.
After Blaydes beat Almeida, he ruled out fighting someone like Ciryl Gane next and said he wants a path straight to Aspinall for a piece of the heavyweight title.
The Blaydes-Aspinall winner presumably will fight the winner of champion Jon Jones vs. former champ Stipe Miocic – provided that winner does not retire after the fight, which has been the speculation for each of them.
With the co-main event addition, the UFC 304 lineup now includes:
- Champ Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad – for welterweight title
- Interim champ Tom Aspinall vs. Curtis Blaydes – for interim heavyweight title
- Bobby Green vs. Paddy Pimblett
- Manel Kape vs. Muhammad Mokaev
- Arnold Allen vs. Giga Chikadze
- Daniel Pineda vs. Nathaniel Wood
- Shauna Bannon vs. Ravena Oliveira
- Bruna Brasil vs. Molly McCann
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.