Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest British Fighters

10. Tom Aspinall

Despite the uncertain nature of his recent injury and what will become of his further career, Aspinall still cracks this list. Personally, I agree with this wholeheartedly, as I had him at No. 6 owing to some stellar victories and being a Top 5 fighter in his division, which is more than many fighters ahead of him can boast. While the knock on British fighters has always been that they're good strikers and poor grapplers, Aspinall is a fantastic grappler with excellent wrestling, ground-and-pound and submissions. In fact, the son of Team Kaobon's grappling coach is likely the best ground fighter on this entire list. Moreover, Aspinall is a potent striker whose standup improves in each fight.

Aspinall began his career 7-2, which is better than it appears, as one of the losses was a submission to the skilled Stuart Austin and another was a DQ loss due to an illegal 12-to-6 elbow, which I've always considered a silly rule. Aspinall then won his first five UFC fights in a row, all by stoppage. Those featured some huge wins, like submitting former champion Andrei Arlovski, brutalizing Sergey Spivak with strikes in half a round and submitting longtime Top 10 contender Alexander Volkov in the first. Sadly, when facing an elite heavyweight in Curtis Blaydes as a small favorite, Aspinall shredded his knee only 15 seconds into the fight. The injury was tough to watch and turned out to be as traumatic as expected, tearing his MCL and meniscus while doing damage to his ACL. Aspinall likely won't return to fighting for a while and there are doubts about his future, but on the bright side, he is still only 29 years old. I for one sincerely hopes he recovers and is much higher on this list a few years from now.

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