5 biggest winners from UFC Fight Night: Alexander Volkov vs. Tom Aspinall

#4. Ilia Topuria – defeated Jai Herbert in UFC lightweight bout

Ilia Topuria starched Jai Herbert in an impressive showing last night.

Despite being 3-0 in the UFC thus far, Ilia Topuria was flying under the radar coming into his lightweight clash with Jai Herbert last night. However, that changed late in the week.

‘El Matador’ was involved in a wild confrontation with Paddy Pimblett at a hotel on Thursday. Suddenly, the Georgian had far more spotlight on him than ever before. That meant that with a win over Herbert, a fight with ‘The Baddy’ would be a distinct possibility – something that could offer him a path to potential stardom.

While it didn’t look like he’d pull it off early on, Topuria ended up living up to his end of the bargain. He destroyed Herbert with a brutal combination of strikes in the second round.

The win has moved him up to 4-0 in the octagon, with three straight finishes by knockout. Even if the promotion chooses not to match him with Pimblett next time out, it’s difficult not to be excited about the future of this prospect.

Based on last night, the sky appears to be the limit for him. If he can continue to perform like this, he’ll become a star in his own right shortly.

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#3. Paddy Pimblett – defeated Kazula Vargas in UFC lightweight bout

Paddy Pimblett (right)appears to be on the path to stardom after his win over Kazula Vargas.

While he didn’t seem to show it at all, there was a lot of pressure on Paddy Pimblett last night. ‘The Baddy’, who broke into the UFC last year with a win over Luigi Vendramini, had tons of hype around him. However, there was an argument that he perhaps hadn’t earned it.

That meant he needed to not only beat Kazula Vargas, but he also needed to dispatch the Mexican with relative ease if he wanted to convince everyone about his pedigree.

Thankfully, Pimblett did just that, choking out Vargas in the first round to literally blow the roof off the O2 Arena. Sure, he took a couple of shots along the way, but who doesn’t in the octagon? For the most part, this was a flawless victory.

Where next for ‘The Baddy’, then? The logical booking would be to match him with Ilia Topuria, who he clashed with last week. However, the UFC’s matchmakers may want to hold off on that to build Pimblett up a little more slowly.

Either way, though, it appears that ‘The Baddy’ has everything needed to become the UK’s new poster boy in MMA. As long as he can keep performing like this, his future stardom is almost a guarantee.