Tom Aspinall thwarts Ugo Monye’s takedown attempts to emerge victorious in ultimate MMA vs. rugby showdown

Tom Aspinall outgrappled former rugby union player Ugo Monye during a recent session. One of the most skilled heavyweight grapplers in the UFC, Aspinall acquainted Monye with grappling techniques in Tom Aspinall's Fight Lab on TNT Sports. Following this, the duo engaged in a full-scale grappling exchange.

While Monye possessed the athleticism, he could not match Aspinall's lifelong experience of one-on-one grappling. The rugby player quickly found himself mounted, ending the grappling exchange. Fortunately for Monye, it was not a shut-out as he had his moments and got Aspinall's attention with a couple of his techniques.

MMA journalist Adam Catterall noted his observations from the grappling exchange and gave props to Monye for offering resistance to Aspinall:

"I'll tell you what... He's got some good techniques. He had a little whizzer in there at one point... Beautiful technique, man!"

Check out the video below (23:45):

Aspinall is widely regarded as one of the most well-rounded heavyweight fighters. While the 31-year-old has scored 12 of his 15 professional MMA victories by knockout, he has a strong catch wrestling and jiu-jitsu base.

The Brit is currently the interim UFC heavyweight champion and all three of his most recent wins have been first-round knockouts.

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Tom Aspinall explains different facets of the upcoming Dricus du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya fight to Ugo Monye

Ugo Monye joined Tom Aspinall and Adam Catterall to break down the upcoming middleweight title fight between champion Dricus du Plessis and former titleholder Israel Adesanya. The fight will headline the UFC 305 event scheduled to take place on Aug.17.

As Aspinall acquainted Monye with different techniques that Adesanya employs to put his opponents off their game, the professional rugby player appeared to be intrigued and asked:

"How tough is that [for the opponents] to be mentally and physically so focused for [fighting] someone like him?" [31:55]

Aspinall explained:

"Well, with Izzy's style, once he gets into a rhythm, I think it's hard to get it back." [32:04]

He then explained the factors that make Du Plessis vs. Adesanya an interesting stylistic matchup:

"With the contrast of styles... This is what's so interesting about this fight. It's that Izzy loves the space and being able to twitch and feint. And DDP hates the space. He's rushing in and putting it on you. Such an interesting stylistic matchup." [32:30]