{"id":293504,"date":"2023-11-08T20:25:38","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T20:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsloveme.com\/?p=293504"},"modified":"2023-11-08T20:25:38","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T20:25:38","slug":"can-aspinall-knock-down-the-self-proclaimed-brick-wall-pavlovich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsloveme.com\/mma\/can-aspinall-knock-down-the-self-proclaimed-brick-wall-pavlovich\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Aspinall knock down the self-proclaimed &apos;brick wall&apos; Pavlovich?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Can Tom Aspinall smash through self-proclaimed &#8216;brick wall&#8217; Sergei Pavlovich? Stats show UFC 295 rivals are closely matched on the feet but British star&#8217;s brilliant ground game could be key<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tom Aspinall accepted Sergei Pavlovich clash on two-and-a-half weeks notice\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Co-main event at UFC 295 will be for the interim heavyweight title\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><span>Eddie Hearn on his greatest-ever boxing venue: Listen here to The Hook<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich have been on a collision course for some time as the next generation of top UFC heavyweights.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the manner in which their fight for the interim heavyweight title has come about leaves scant preparation time for both men.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After Jon Jones&#8217; planned defence against Stipe Miocic was scrapped following the champion&#8217;s injury, the UFC moved quickly to find a replacement bout.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The legacy bout has made way for one pitting two young, hungry contenders against each other.<\/p>\n<p>Both have lost only once since joining the UFC, Aspinall through no fault of his own after suffering an injury seconds into his clash with Curtis Blaydes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/07\/14\/77507085-12720581-image-a-5_1699366586071.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Tom Aspinall (right), seen here beating Marcin Tybura, faces Sergei Pavlovich on Saturday<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/07\/14\/77506841-12720581-image-a-4_1699366331226.jpg\" height=\"634\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Pavlovich has been in the octagon for just over two rounds when all the times of his previous six encounters are combined.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As Aspinall has said himself, it is difficult to prepare for someone who &#8216;steamrolls people&#8217;, given the lack of material to pore over.<\/p>\n<p>So what is the Brit&#8217;s best path to victory? How can he overcome the man with the highest average knockdown rate per 15 minutes in UFC history?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It is a question Aspinall&#8217;s coaches will no doubt have been working on around the clock, ever since he accepted the bout on a late-night phone call with the UFC.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pavlovich is not a one-trick pony in that most of his finishes aren&#8217;t with the kind of one-shot kill power that Francis Ngannou possessed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He overwhelms with relentless combinations and volume to go with his natural strength and impressive technique.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pavlovich does put himself in the firing line in order to land his shots, but benefits from a long reach &#8211; which will be six inches longer than Aspinall&#8217;s on Saturday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/07\/14\/77507081-12720581-image-a-6_1699366656941.jpg\" height=\"464\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Aspinall has a great ground game and is seen here choking out Andrei Arlovski<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/07\/14\/77507083-12720581-image-a-7_1699366659944.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The British heavyweight also tapped out Alexander Volkov in March last year<\/p>\n<p>To fight fire with fire would be a complete lottery for Aspinall and do a disservice to his skills of calculation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At his best the Brit springs in and out of range, using his elite athleticism to box and move, as he did magnificently in beating Marcin Tybura this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Aspinall has the second best striking differential of all time &#8211; landing 4.75 more strikes per round than his opponents.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pavlovich lands 4.39 more than his rivals per round, so the pair are not separated by much, although arguably the Russian has fought stronger opposition.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Average fight time also shows the ruthless streak of both men when they smell blood.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Aspinall &#8211; at 2mins 19seconds is the shortest in UFC history &#8211; while Pavlovich&#8217;s average is only two seconds longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Odds are, if this is just a firefight, the first to land hard will be able to put his opponent away.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/07\/14\/77501915-12720581-image-a-8_1699366719949.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Pavlovich is a young, hungry contender and competes with Aspinall for interim gold<\/p>\n<p>Where Aspinall will hope to shift the fight to his favour is by making use of his jiu-jitsu.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His submissions of Andrei Arlovski and Alexander Volkov were brutal and brilliant and he could see this as an area where he is levels above an otherwise well-matched heavyweight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Aspinall will first have to take Pavlovich down and here&#8217;s where the fight could be won or lost. The Russian has trained in wrestling since he was a young boy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And Aspinall&#8217;s flawless 100 per cent takedown success rate will be severely tested. Against one of the division&#8217;s best wrestlers, Curtis Blaydes, Pavlovich reflected: &#8216;I understood that if he was going to try and go for a shot, and it was basically just going to be met with a brick wall, he\u2019ll start to psychologically crumble \u2014 and that\u2019s exactly what we worked on, that\u2019s what we prepared.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Aspinall is a far more fluid striker than Blaydes but if Pavlovich manages to be &#8216;a brick wall&#8217; again, he could cut off his opponent&#8217;s cleanest route to victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His takedown defence success is at 75 per cent, which does offer hope to Aspinall that persistence could pay off.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/07\/14\/77507229-12720581-image-a-10_1699366880860.jpg\" height=\"430\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Alistair Overeem (top) is the only man to defeat Pavlovich so far in the UFC<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/07\/14\/77507079-12720581-image-a-9_1699366755315.jpg\" height=\"429\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Aspinall will believe he can get the better of Pavlovich if he takes him down<\/p>\n<p>The way Alistair Overeem managed to finish Pavlovich relatively quickly with ground-and-pound will also offer real belief to Aspinall.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One of the fascinating aspects of the co-main event is the lack of real adversity faced by both men in most of their fights in the UFC.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Predominantly they&#8217;ve had it their own way and their championship mettle has not been thoroughly tested.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Given the stats and all the comparisons on paper, it looks extremely unlikely that this one will run for 25 minutes. Aspinall himself has said: &#8216;Someone is getting finished, it is inevitable, goes without saying.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/mma\/article-12720581\/Can-Tom-Aspinall-smash-self-proclaimed-brick-wall-Sergei-Pavlovich-Stats-UFC-295-rivals-closely-matched-feet-British-stars-brilliant-ground-game-key.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can Tom Aspinall smash through self-proclaimed &#8216;brick wall&#8217; Sergei Pavlovich? Stats show UFC 295 rivals are closely matched on the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can Aspinall knock down the self-proclaimed &amp;apos;brick wall&amp;apos; Pavlovich? - Sports Love Me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsloveme.com\/mma\/can-aspinall-knock-down-the-self-proclaimed-brick-wall-pavlovich\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can Aspinall knock down the self-proclaimed &amp;apos;brick wall&amp;apos; Pavlovich? - Sports Love Me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Can Tom Aspinall smash through self-proclaimed &#8216;brick wall&#8217; Sergei Pavlovich? 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