UFC London: Tom Aspinall picks up where he left off with 1st-round ...

It took British heavyweight prospect Tom Aspinall only 1:13 to finish Marcin Tybura in his return to the Octagon after a one-year injury layoff. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

If there were ever any doubts about his health, about his ability to regain his position among the UFC’s elite heavyweights, Tom Aspinall dispelled them Saturday in about the same it took for the concerns to arise a year ago.

The UFC is like a train that is constantly moving forward, and fighters who fall behind often never catch back up. And given that Aspinall competes in a division suddenly deep with both veteran and emerging talent, he went into his bout with Marcin Tybura on Saturday at the O2 Arena in London with a lot to deal with.

He felt horrible about lasting only 15 seconds in his last fight before he was injured, when 2,000 of his family, closest friends and fans made the two-hour trip from Leigh, England, to London to see him fight veteran Curtis Blaydes.

Aspinall didn’t waste any time on Saturday, just as he started quickly against Blaydes last year. On July 23, 2022, Aspinall threw a kick at Blaydes and disaster struck. He tore his meniscus and his MCL and damaged his ACL.

It took him a year to fully recover and get back into the cage. On Saturday — July 22 — he started the fight with a kick against Tybura, just as he had against Blaydes.

This time, though, it was vastly different. The kick was hard and fast and landed near the head, catching Tybura on the shoulder and neck. It rocked Tybura, the 10th-ranked heavyweight who had won seven of eight entering the bout, who stumbled around before regaining his balance.

It almost seemed as if the crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief at that moment. But Aspinall never let up. He was on the attack immediately and after the leg kick, firing off a combination that wobbled the Polish veteran.

Once they moved to the center of the Octagon, Aspinall fired a straight right down the middle. It landed on the chin and sent Tybura stumbling backward to the cage. He went down on the seat of his pants, momentarily dazed.

If Aspinall wasn’t quick in getting to him, it is quite likely that Tybura would have recovered. But showing his athleticism, Aspinall was on Tybura almost instantly and started battering Tybura with quick, short and hard right-hand punches. Referee Marc Goddard stopped it just 1:13 into the fight, sending the O2 into a delirious celebration.

Nobody was happier than Aspinall, who could barely contain his glee. He looked back on the difficulty of coming back from such a serious injury and admitted it was harder than he’d let on heading into the bout.

“It’s been a really tough year for me,” Aspinall said in the Octagon. “I wasn’t myself.” He added that he isn’t “back,” but he didn’t mean that he feels he has something left to prove. He meant that he’s taken himself to another level and is fully committed to the sport and becoming the best in the world.

“I’ve just been working on the mental aspect so much, you know?” Aspinall said. “I’ve been having hypnotherapy like twice a week. I found it really tough to get over the injury mentally, to be honest with you. I found it really hard to drag 20,000 people to this arena [in 2022] to fall over in 20 seconds [with an injury]. … I found it really hard, mentally. I’ve been working on my whole lifestyle, to be honest.

“My life outside the gym is perfect. My life inside the gym now is perfect. I’ve got some great training partners. … Before, I was kind of one foot in, one foot out but now, I feel like coming back from the injury really put into perspective what I want to do this for. You have to step both feet in or step both feet out and you can’t be halfway. I decided I’m both feet in, obviously.”

He saw on television that heavyweight champion Jon Jones heard his call-out — Aspinall said he wants to fight the Ciryl Gane-Sergey Spivak winner and then take on Jones — and Jones responded by laughing on Twitter. Aspinall said, “at least he knows I exist!”

Anyone in the sport paying attention knows he exists and is going to be a big part of the division’s future. UFC president Dana White said he was impressed in a text message to Yahoo Sports.

“[Aspinall] looked amazing tonight,” White told Yahoo Sports. “You can tell that he is mentally and physically in a great place. I’m excited to see what he does from here on out.”

The only thing that wasn’t so universally loved Saturday was Aspinall’s call-out of the Gane-Spivak winner. There was a lot of support for a bout with No. 1 contender Sergei Pavlovich.

And Aspinall, who seems to have finally gained the confidence in himself that others have had for him, was on board with that if it’s what the UFC wants.

“Pavlovich hits like an absolute truck,” Aspinall said. “He’s very, very dangerous, but so am I. So yeah, we could do that, too.”

There’s a lot to be done in the heavyweight division and Aspinall, now fully healthy and fully confident, figures to be in the middle of much of it.