UFC 321: Can Tom Aspinall Make Heavyweight MMA Great Again?

The heavyweight championship main event at UFC 321 carries more significance for the UFC than just a regular title fight. This is a matchup that can reignite a weight class, and establish a new superstar at the top of the sport.

England's Tom Aspinall heads into the event in Abu Dhabi as the defending undisputed heavyweight champion, but the messybout odds nature of the UFC's heavyweight division means that he still has to claim a big victory on Saturday night to fully establish himself as the division's top dog.

A flying start, then a sudden halt

Aspinall looked the part from the moment he arrived in the UFC. His 45-second knockout of Jake Collier showed that he was immediately more than just a prospect in the division, and another first-round stoppage, this time of Alan Baudot, only underscored that assessment.

It meant that bigger-name opposition was essential for Aspinall, and former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski got the call. He lasted a bit longer than Collier and Baudot, but was still finished by the Briton, who submitted "Pitbull" with a second-round rear-naked choke.

The Aspinall bandwagon was officially up and running, and first-round finishes of Serghei Spivac (via TKO) and Alexander Volkov (via straight armlock submission) put him within reach of the division's elite.

But disaster struck when a checked kick left Aspinall with a shattered knee as he suffered his first UFC defeat just 15 seconds into his UFC London headliner with Curtis Blaydes at The O2 Arena.

It forced Aspinall onto the shelf for a full year, but when he returned to action, almost a year to the day, at the same venue, Aspinall showed that he hadn't just recovered, he'd leveled up.

Back with a vengeance

Aspinall demolished Polish contender Marcin Tybura in just 73 seconds to announce his return and, with the bout between then-heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former champ Stipe Miocic in the works, but forced onto the back burner due to Jones' torn pectoral muscle, the UFC instituted an interim title, with Aspinall set to face Russian knockout artist Sergei Pavlovich.

The pair met at UFC 295 at Madison Square Garden in a fight that split the experts. But when the action got underway at "The World's Most Famous Arena", Aspinall showed he was a class above his opponent as he knocked out Pavlovich in stunning fashion in just 69 seconds to capture the interim crown.

The fight that never happened

Despite fans calling for Jones to face Aspinall in a unification bout, Jones returned to defeat the retiring Miocic, then played down any suggestion of him fighting Aspinall. Aspinall didn't sit quietly, and made sure fans knew of his respect for Jones, but also his firm belief that he's the better heavyweight, and his desire to prove it in a title unification fight.

During that time, Aspinall returned to the Octagon and flattened Blaydes in 60 seconds in their rematch to register a knockout defence of his interim title. And with Jones still unwilling to face him, Aspinall suggested that he'd retire Jones without ever actually having to fight him.

That prediction proved correct as, after months of will-he, won't-he speculation, it was announced that, rather than unify the title against Aspinall, Jones had taken the decision to retire from the sport and relinquish his title, with Aspinall immediately promoted to undisputed champ status.

A chance to move on

After one of the messier periods in UFC heavyweight history, the organisation finally gets to move forward on Saturday night at UFC 321 when Aspinall takes on France's former interim champion, Ciryl Gane.

The bout odds have Aspinall set as a -400 favourite heading into the matchup in Abu Dhabi, and the level of expectation around the fight, and his performance, is increasing ahead of fight night.

If Aspinall can get the job done, and do so in the fashion in which he's dispensed with the rest of his UFC opponents to date, the UFC will have a dominant, fan-friendly force at the top of their marquee weight division.

After years of stagnation, fragmentation and frustration, the UFC heavyweight division could be returning to its former glory again, but it's down to Aspinall to deliver the goods. If he does, he'll automatically become one of the UFC's biggest stars.