UFC Fight Night 203 - Santos vs. Ankalaev --- UFC on ESPN 33 - Blaydes vs. Daukaus
UFC Fight Night 204: Volkov vs. Aspinall (also known as UFC London) is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will take place on March 19, 2022 at The O2 Arena in London, United Kingdom.
Fight card
Main card (ESPN+)
Heavyweight Alexander Volkov vs. Tom Aspinall
Featherweight Arnold Allen vs. Dan Hooker
Lightweight Paddy Pimblett vs. Kazula Vargas
Welterweight Gunnar Nelson vs. Takashi Sato
Women's Flyweight Molly McCann vs. Luana Carolina
Lightweight Jai Herbert vs. Ilia Topuria
Preliminary card (ESPN+)
Featherweight Mike Grundy vs. Makwan Amirkhani
Heavyweight Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Sergei Pavlovich
Light Heavyweight Nikita Krylov vs. Paul Craig
Bantamweight Jack Shore vs. Timur Valiev
Women's Strawweight Cory McKenna vs. Elise Reed
Flyweight Muhammad Mokaev vs. Cody Durden
Background
The event will be the first in London since UFC Fight Night: Till vs. Masvidal in March 2019. The UFC was expected to return to the city in March 2020 at UFC Fight Night: Woodley vs. Edwards and in September 2021 at UFC Fight Night: Brunson vs. Till, but the first event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the latter was relocated to Las Vegas.
A heavyweight bout between former Bellator Heavyweight World Champion Alexander Volkov and Tom Aspinall is expected to headline the event. Aspinall was originally expected to face Shamil Abdurakhimov, but after he was pulled in favor of the main event spot, Abdurakhimov was rescheduled against Sergei Pavlovich instead.
A bantamweight bout between Jack Shore and Umar Nurmagomedov was scheduled for the event. However, Nurmagomedov was removed from the bout due to undisclosed reasons and replaced by Timur Valiev.
A flyweight bout between Jake Hadley and Francisco Figueiredo was scheduled for the event. However, Figueiredo withdrew from the event due to undisclosed reasons and was replaced by Allan Nascimento. Hadley eventually had to pull out due to injury and the bout was scrapped.
A lightweight between Jai Herbert and Mike Davis was scheduled for the event. However, Davis withdrew from the bout due to personal reasons and was replaced by Ilia Topuria.
Cláudio Silva was expected to face Gunnar Nelson in a welterweight bout. However, Silva pulled out in early March due to a knee injury. He was replaced by Takashi Sato.
A bantamweight bout between Liudvik Sholinian and Nathaniel Wood was scheduled for this event. However, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sholinian was unable to leave the Ukraine or train properly, so he was replaced by Vince Morales. In turn, just days before the event, Morales withdrew due to illness, and the pair will be rescheduled for future event.
Mar 18 - Updated fight card & background
