| UFC Fight Night: Volkov vs. Aspinall | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC Fight Night: Volkov vs. Aspinall | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | March 19, 2022 (2022-03-19) | |||
| Venue | The O2 Arena | |||
| City | London, England | |||
| Attendance | 17,081[1] | |||
| Total gate | $4,500,000[1] | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC Fight Night: Volkov vs. Aspinall (also known asUFC Fight Night 204 andUFC on ESPN+ 62) was amixed martial arts event produced by theUltimate Fighting Championship that took place on March 19, 2022, atThe O2 Arena inLondon, England.[2]
The event was the first inLondon sinceUFC Fight Night: Till vs. Masvidal in March 2019. The UFC was expected to return to the city in March 2020 atUFC Fight Night: Woodley vs. Edwards and in September 2021 atUFC Fight Night: Brunson vs. Till, but the first event was cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, and the latter was relocated toLas Vegas.[2]
A heavyweight bout between formerBellator Heavyweight World ChampionAlexander Volkov andTom Aspinall headlined the event.[3] Aspinall was originally expected to faceShamil Abdurakhimov, but after he was pulled in favor of the main event spot, Abdurakhimov was rescheduled againstSergei Pavlovich instead.[4][5]
A bantamweight bout betweenJack Shore andUmar Nurmagomedov was scheduled for the event.[6] However, Nurmagomedov was removed from the bout due to undisclosed reasons and replaced byTimur Valiev.[7]
A flyweight bout between Jake Hadley andFrancisco Figueiredo was scheduled for the event.[8] However, Figueiredo withdrew from the event due to undisclosed reasons and was replaced by Allan Nascimento.[9] Hadley eventually had to pull out due to injury and the bout was scrapped.[10] They were later rescheduled to meet atUFC Fight Night 209.[11]
A lightweight bout betweenJai Herbert andMike Davis was scheduled for the event.[12] However, Davis withdrew from the bout for personal reasons and was replaced byIlia Topuria.[13]
Cláudio Silva was expected to faceGunnar Nelson in a welterweight bout.[14] However, Silva pulled out in early March due to a knee injury.[15] He was replaced byTakashi Sato.[16]
A bantamweight bout between Liudvik Sholinian andNathaniel Wood was scheduled for this event.[17] However, due to theRussian invasion of Ukraine, Sholinian was unable to leave Ukraine or train properly, so he was replaced byVince Morales.[18][19] In turn, just days before the event, Morales withdrew due to illness.[20] The pairing will be rescheduled for a future event.[21]
| Main card (ESPN+) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Heavyweight | Tom Aspinall | def. | Alexander Volkov | Submission (straight armbar) | 1 | 3:45 | |
| Featherweight | Arnold Allen | def. | Dan Hooker | TKO (punches and elbows) | 1 | 2:33 | |
| Lightweight | Paddy Pimblett | def. | Kazula Vargas | Submission (rear-naked choke) | 1 | 3:50 | |
| Welterweight | Gunnar Nelson | def. | Takashi Sato | Decision (unanimous) (30–26, 30–26, 30–26) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Women's Flyweight | Molly McCann | def. | Luana Carolina | KO (spinning back elbow) | 3 | 1:52 | |
| Lightweight | Ilia Topuria | def. | Jai Herbert | KO (punches) | 2 | 1:07 | |
| Preliminary card (ESPN+) | |||||||
| Featherweight | Makwan Amirkhani | def. | Mike Grundy | Technical Submission (anaconda choke) | 1 | 0:57 | |
| Heavyweight | Sergei Pavlovich | def. | Shamil Abdurakhimov | TKO (punches) | 1 | 4:03 | |
| Light Heavyweight | Paul Craig | def. | Nikita Krylov | Submission (triangle choke) | 1 | 3:57 | |
| Bantamweight | Jack Shore | def. | Timur Valiev | Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29-28, 29–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Women's Strawweight | Elise Reed | def. | Cory McKenna | Decision (split) (27–30, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Flyweight | Muhammad Mokaev | def. | Cody Durden | Submission (guillotine choke) | 1 | 0:58 | |
The following fighters received $50,000.[23] While the UFC usually gives out four bonus awards for each event, a record of nine post-fight bonuses were given out to each fighter who secured a finish.[24]
The event was widely regarded by the MMA media as the best event of 2022.[25][26][27][28]
