Tom Aspinall surprised himself at UFC Fight Night 185, wants Chris Daukaus or veteran next

LAS VEGAS – Tom Aspinall doesn’t take lightly the experience he gained from fighting a savvy veteran and former UFC heavyweight champion in Andrei Arlovski on Saturday.

In the opening UFC Fight Night 185 main card fight, Aspinall (10-2 MMA, 3-0 UFC) defeated Arlovski (30-20 MMA, 19-14 UFC) by second-round rear-naked choke submission. He partook in a fight against one of his idols, and from the experience, Aspinall learned a lot.

“If I want to be the champion, which I know that I can be, I have a lot to improve on,” Aspinall said at a post-fight news conference. “I want to be fighting more veterans like that because you can learn from them. I was hitting him with some clean shots. But because he’s (taken) so many shots, he knows how to ride the shots and close the distance, so you don’t land them clean. All kinds of stuff I haven’t really dealt with before, so I’d like to fight someone like him again.”

Thus far in his professional MMA career, Aspinall has made his mark as a fighter who finishes fights using his striking. However, Aspinall showed he has more to his game when he became only the second fighter to submit Arlovski in 50 career pro fights.

“I’ve been doing jiu-jitsu a long time,” Aspinall said. “My dad, he’s one of the first black belts in the U.K. I’ve been in and out of jiu-jitsu basically all my life. I’ve got some jiu-jitsu, just not a lot of people know about it. I’ll just keep in the back pocket for when I need it, I think. Just like I did tonight. No one expected that. Not even me. It was just instinctive when I got him to the mat. (I’d) take the back and choke.”

As for what’s next, Aspinall kept his options open. He mentioned the winner of Aleksei Oleinik vs. Chris Daukaus (which turned out to be Daukaus by first-round TKO), or perhaps a fight against another veteran like Arlovski.

“Maybe, give me the winner of Oleinik or Daukaus,” Aspinall said. “(I’m) a big fan of both guys. Or give me someone experienced again. I’d like that: (Those) veteran fights that are people on kind of the backend of their career. I’m all about learning. I want to learn because I don’t have much experience. I want to get a lot of experience before I get up there. That’s what I want to do.”

UFC Fight Night 185 took place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The main card streamed on ESPN+.