Tom Aspinall said he wanted to "return to the scene of the crime" in order to earn redemption, and that's exactly what he did on Saturday.
One year out from suffering a knee injury in the opening 15 seconds against Curtis Blaydes at the O2 Arena, Aspinall was back at the famed London venue for a UFC Fight Night main event against Marcin Tybura. Aspinall needed the full year to rehabilitate his knee before stepping back into the Octagon, but any doubts about his physical and mental health were put to rest within the opening seconds of Saturday's bout as the 30-year-old English fighter was the aggressor for the entirety of the 1:13 he needed to earn the stoppage.
Aspinall led off with a big kick that backed his Polish opponent up, and from then on it was Tybura simply trying to react to everything Aspinall threw at him. Unfortunately for Tybura he wasn't able to handle the speed at which Aspinall was fighting, and a quick combination of punches from the Briton put the underdog on his back and allowed Aspinall to pounce, with a flurry of strikes forcing the referee to call an end to the fight.
"It's been a really tough year for me, and guys listen, I wasn't myself," Aspinall said in the post-fight interview. "I wasn't myself last year and this is a whole new version of me. I'm not going to say that I'm back because I'm different now. I'm just different than what I was last year. My mind's different, my body's different and I'm going all the way."
Despite the quick ending to the fight, Aspinall was full of praise for Tybura, who he called a "great human being" and a friend.
"That seemed like an easy fight but Marcin's a really, really good guy. The guy's won seven of his last eight [fights] in the top 10," he said.
Regardless of the respect between Aspinall and Tybura, the impressive way the fight ended for Aspinall likely thrusts his name back into the UFC heavyweight title conversation. While Aspinall isn't ready to insert himself into the title picture just yet, he made a prediction for how the next few months are going to play out in the heavyweight division.
"I'm going to go to Paris," Aspinall said. "I'm going to be sat front row for Ciryl Gane against Sergey Spivak [on Sept. 2], I'm gonna beat the winner, and then I'm gonna beat Jon Jones."