‘Tom Turned Out To Be Faster’

Pavlovich promised to learn from his loss in New York City and come back soon, better than ever.

It was a night of dizzying highs and terrible lows at UFC 295 in Madison Square Garden. All five fights on the main card ended via vicious KO or TKO, leaving a lot of crushed contenders to deal with their defeats.

Amongst those contenders was Russian heavyweight Sergei Pavlovich, who had accepted a last minute interim title fight against Tom Aspinall. While Pavlovich looked dangerous early on and cracked Aspinall a few times, he eventually ate two hard punches upside his skull that knocked him to the canvas unconscious.

In what has become standard for both Aspinall and Pavlovich fights, the entire bout took just 1:09 (watch the highlights here).

Pavlovich took to Telegram following the loss to thank his supporters and give an update on his health.

“I didn’t suffer any damage to my health, I’m fine,” he wrote. “Tom turned out to be faster, I was lucky to hit him right away, but he turned out to be more accurate. Decided to take one hit.”

“I’ll be back in the cage soon, I want to be active and perform so I can have a chance to fight for the belt again,” he continued. “This is my goal and we will get there! I see your support, thank you all!”

He was equally positive in a message sent on Instagram.

“Friends! Thank you for your support!” he wrote. “Let’s draw conclusions and come back stronger.”

Pavlovich will no doubt continue to be a scourge in the UFC heavyweight division, where he rattled off six first round KO finishes over the past four years. That win streak was snapped by Aspinall, but we doubt these two big boys have seen the last of each other.