MMA/Boxing Documentaries

[Carbomb]

On 7/5/2025 at 10:23 PM, Egg Shen said:

Just re-read that thread @jimufctna24this forum acts like reading diary entries sometimes

This is very true.

I've recently found something similar that's quite interesting on here: reading the evolution of @wandshogun09's evaluations of fighters in his match reports that have gone on to do well. Case in point: Tom Aspinall - when he first showed up, wand was understandably cautious.

On 6/27/2020 at 11:21 AM, wandshogun09 said:

 

Jake Collier vs Tom Aspinall is another fight that was originally booked for that London show. Can’t say I’m familiar with either man myself. Collier has been inactive since 2017. He’s 11-4 and, apparently, he’s fought in the UFC six times. Six! I don’t recall ever seeing him. If I did then he can’t have left much of an impression. Aspinall is from Wigan and is making his UFC debut. 7-2, all finishes. That’s all I’ve got. Hey, it’s low level Heavyweight MMA. It’s either going to be so bad it’s perversely entertaining or it’s just going to be pure, unredeemable shite. There isn’t much grey area when it comes to the Heavies. Just a big brown one.

I couldn't find the threads for Moraes/Sandhagen and Blaydes/Lewis which he next fought on (I'm guessing he didn't watch them), but Big Tom clearly did an OK job, because wand in the next post is still cautious, but optimistic:

On 8/15/2021 at 4:56 PM, wandshogun09 said:

Tom Aspinall vs Sergey Spivak. Looking forward to this. It was supposed to be Aspinall vs Sergei Pavlovich but Visa issues took Pavlovich out and here we are. To be fair, Spivak’s the same kind of test. It’s early days for Aspinall anyway but this is a bit of a step up. He’s turned quite a few heads since coming to the UFC. Watching Heavyweight MMA, it’s not that often you get new faces come along who seem worth getting a bit excited about. So when a guy like Aspinall surfaces, it understandably gets people talking. He’s only 28, which is practically a baby in the Heavyweight division. He’s from Manchester, England. Let’s be honest, England hasn’t had a genuine Heavyweight in MMA who could make waves since…when?

He’s a big old lump at 6’5” and not far below the 265lb limit. He’s a BJJ black-belt. And he has a MMA record of 10-2 with all 10 wins being finishes. The two blemishes - one was a submission very early in his career, the other was a DQ after he threw a downward elbow. That was 2016. He’s won and finished 6 fights on the trot since. He signed with the UFC in 2020, made short work of shitehawk Jake Collier and Alan Baudot. Then in February he got his first big name opponent and submitted the legendary Andrei Arlovski. Not bad going. On top of all that, he seems a top bloke as well. Hard not to root for him. Just being realistic though, some of the talk I’ve seen has been a bit much. I’m seeing people talk Aspinall up as if he’s the champ in waiting but his best win to date is over a faded Arlovski. I like him and he’s clearly a more promising Heavyweight than most of the knuckle dragging no hopers we see come through. But some people see a bit of potential and get silly with it. So far, so good. But there’s still a long way to go. Spivak’s 26 years old, 13-2 and coming off 3 straight wins. He’s come up short a couple of times but he’s shown flashes of promise in a division where not that many of the new blood do. He beat Alexey Oleynik last time out and also scored a dominating submission win over Tai Tuivasa a couple of years back. This is probably the toughest test for Aspinall to date. It’ll be interesting to see how Aspinall tackles this one.

Then we get to Aspinall's first headline against Volkov, and he's still cautious! Takes a lot to win you over, wand!

On 3/1/2022 at 7:48 PM, wandshogun09 said:

Alexander Volkov vs Tom Aspinall headlines. Well it’s supposed to. Not even sure it’s gonna actually end up happening. There were reports the other day that the fight was in jeopardy because of the current situation going on with Russia, and Volkov’s visa being affected. But then the UFC put the poster out and stuff so they must be confident it’s going ahead. Not that a bastard MMA fight matters in the big picture. It’s just a temporary distraction from the horrid shit going on in the world at the moment. We’ll assume it’s happening for now though.

Got to love the heavy bag there ? This is a big step up for Aspinall. He’s a guy everyone seems to like and he’s the UK’s first proper Heavyweight prospect in forever. Really, who was the last one? Are we going all the way back to Ian Freeman bashing Frank Mir about in 2002! We’ve had other Heavyweights since but I can’t remember one that people really believed could go that far or got especially excited about. He’s 11-2 in his MMA career with all 11 wins coming inside the distance. And even one of the losses was a DQ. He hasn’t been legitimately beaten since his fourth pro fight back in 2015. He’s now on a 7 fight winning streak, he’s won and finished all 4 of his UFC fights and got POTN bonuses for 3 of them. Last year he submitted Andrei Arlovski and got a quick TKO over Sergey Spivak. Not sure where his ceiling is but things are looking promising so far. He’s still only 28 years old as well, which pretty much makes him a baby at Heavyweight. He was briefly linked to a fight with Shamil Abdurakhimov on this card, which was a bit underwhelming and felt like a step backwards. But they switched things up and booked this fight. Much better.

Like I said, this is a real test. Volkov’s a huge man at 6’7” and he has quite an experience advantage. This’ll be his 44th MMA fight. He’s gone 34-9 and he’s had his share of setbacks but he’s done pretty well and has racked up strong wins over the likes of Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Walt Harris, Marcin Tybura and Roy Nelson. Former Bellator champ, former M-1 champ. He’s a good fighter. The Overeem fight last year was probably the best performance of his career for me. Best he’s looked from the fights I’ve seen. He got outpointed by Ciryl Gane after that but I still think Gane has a really bright future. And Volkov bounced back with the Tybura win in his last fight. It’ll be interesting to see how Aspinall tackles this one. I don’t think we’ve seen him face someone who’s bigger than him yet and Volkov can be awkward. If he looks like he looked in the Reem fight then Aspinall could have his hands full here. Really not sure how it goes. I hope Aspinall wins. It’d be a cool moment for him to get that first signature win, in his first UFC main event, on home soil in the UK. But as much as I like him, I’m not quite as confident in him as many seem to be. If he beats a guy like Volkov the way he’s beat his last few opponents then I’ll have to start believing. Just hope it’s a good fight. The Heavyweights, more than any other weight class, are a complete lottery when it comes to fight quality. Feels like an age since London got a card so hopefully it delivers.

 

Anyway, Aspinall beat Volkov, and wand started believing. 

I've been reading on the reviews of Topuria (although, because there's no Moraes/Sandhagen, I've no idea what wand thought of him leading up to his debut), and it goes similarly, but Our Wand is more Ready To Believe, which is understandable given the division, and how impressive Topuria has been.

(Sorry if it makes you uncomfortable, wand - but it's genuinely interesting to read what an MMA oracle like yourself has to say about these guys along a timeline.)

[Egg Shen]

  great stuff

wand. had no idea what was coming with Aspinall.

[jimufctna24]

Regarding who was the last hyped British Heavyweight prospect before Aspinall.

If I recall correctly, Al-Turk was hyped up on the forums for a while in the mid-2000s. Mostly due to him beating Henry Miller, Mark Kerr, and others in Cage Rage. He bombed in the UFC though, losing all 3 of his fights and retiring afterwards.

I always smile when I read Ian Freeman's name btw.

 

[wandshogun09]

4 hours ago, Carbomb said:

I couldn't find the threads for Moraes/Sandhagen and Blaydes/Lewis which he next fought on (I'm guessing he didn't watch them)

I’d have definitely watched. It’s only recently I started skipping stuff. Only way I might’ve missed an Aspinall fight is if he was on really early in the Fight Pass prelims, maybe, but even then I think I was watching cards pretty much top to bottom around that time in 2020/21ish.

If you’re interested, I managed to find those Moraes/Sandhagen and Blaydes/Lewis threads. Here’s what I said about Aspinall going into those fights…

Vs Baudot on the Moraes/Sandhagen card…

On 9/18/2020 at 4:14 PM, wandshogun09 said:

Tom Aspinall vs Alan Baudot. Another late switch up. Aspinall was all set to face Sergey Spivak but Spivak’s out so here we are. Fucking Clubber Lang’s stepped in. On paper it looks like a decent battle of up and coming Heavyweights. Often we see these HW fights booked between new guys and roll our eyes. But these are two who actually look like they might potentially go on to be something more than the fat brawlers who get released after going 1-4 and never get above the prelims. Aspinall is 27 from Wigan and fights out of Team Kaobon. He’s 8-2, all his wins have been finishes and it took him just 45 seconds to TKO Jake Collier in his UFC debut in July. Baudot is 32 years old out of Lyon, France. He’s 8-1 with 7 knockouts, 5 inside a round. So yeah, amongst the sea of shite, there are some new Heavyweights who actually show some promise. I pity the fool who doesn’t recognise that. 

 

And he got the ‘one to watch’ treatment for the Arlovski fight…

On 1/21/2021 at 5:33 PM, wandshogun09 said:

Andrei Arlovski vs Tom Aspinall is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. Past vs future. Old school vs new breed and all that shite. I’m not always a fan of these legend vs prospect fights but there’s something about this matchup I really like.

Andrei Arlovski in better days there. That was a really memorable period for me. When I was first getting into MMA, Arlovski was the man (in the UFC at least) and knocking fools out left and right. And, well, look at him. You didn’t forget him in a hurry. He’ll be 42 years old by the time this card rolls around. I’d say retirement must be looming but it feels like we’ve been saying that every single time he’s fought since that horrid slump he had around 2009. This’ll be his 52nd official MMA fight. He made his MMA debut in April 1999. That same month, Aspinall celebrated his 6th birthday! But while he’s certainly not a threat to the title these days, Arlovski’s actually not aged half as bad as a lot of the big names from his era. Yeah, he loses when he comes up against a Rozenstruik or Ngannou. But he can still go at a certain level. He’s lost a couple of steps but he’s not shot. He comes into this fight off back-to-back wins over Tanner Boser and Philipe Lins. You still have to have something about you to beat the ‘Pitbull’. It’s not a gimme like BJ Penn or Rashad Evans were at the end.

So this should give us an idea what Aspinall’s about. He’s looked good so far. 9-2, all finishes, 5 fight win streak etc. But his best wins are that Mr T lookalike in his last fight and Jake fucking Collier. I mean, I’m not knocking Aspinall. The potential is clearly there and he’s dealt with these ham and eggers as any prospect worth his salt would do. But it’s still a jump going from that to Andrei Arlovski. Even the 2021 version of Arlovski is vastly superior to the level Aspinall’s been operating on to date. Interesting one. These days you don’t just blow through Arlovski unless you’ve got something. So if Aspinall blasts him like he’s been winning these squash matches, we might actually have another real Heavyweight prospect on our hands.

 

So yeah, I was definitely cautious but you can see me believing in him more with each fight. I think we’ve been burned so many times with the Heavyweights we’ve been conditioned to not get excited at all about new faces. And honestly, while Aspinall looked the part in those early fights, the opposition wasn’t very good in his first few so I always err on the side of caution and manage expectations until we see them against better opposition. Reading those old threads now, even after that Arlovski win I was impressed but still saying “I don’t see Aspinall becoming champ or anything but…” Clearly I was wrong but this was back when we still had Stipe and Francis doing their thing and it was way too early days for Aspinall at that point. Think the Volkov fight is where I finally turned the corner and really started buying into Aspinall as something a bit special. 

2 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

  great stuff

wand. had no idea what was coming with Aspinall.

Yep. I don’t think anyone truly did in those early days. There were always people going ‘this guy is gonna be the UK’s first Heavyweight champ’ and stuff but they were saying that after wins over Jake Collier and Alan Baudot, for fuck’s sake! Aspinall proved he’s the real deal in time but for every Tom Aspinall there’s a couple of Mick Parkins and I remember people bigging Parkin up as some amazing prospect as well. I’m still not buying that one.

Oh and @Carbomb, that Moraes vs Sandhagen thread is a particularly interesting one because it also featured the UFC debuts of both Dricus Du Plessis and Ilia Topuria. Here’s what I said about both going in…

DDP…

On 9/18/2020 at 4:14 PM, wandshogun09 said:

Markus Perez vs Dricus Du Plessis. OK, change of plan here. This was originally supposed to be Perez vs BJJ gorilla Rodolfo Vieira but Vieira has pulled out injured. In steps Octagon newcomer Dricus Du Plessis. A 26 year old South African with a record of 14-2 and all his wins (and losses) being finishes. Not familiar with him but apparently he’s supposed to be a bit of a prospect. He was the KSW Welterweight champion and was also a double champ (170 & 185) for the EFC promotion in Africa.

That said, nearly all of his opposition have been unknowns and he got knocked out a couple of fights ago. Still, doesn’t seem a bad signing. He sounds exciting if nothing else. Perez is 12-3 and a former LFA Middleweight champ. He’s lost a few recently but also has victories over the likes of Ian Heinisch and ex UFC fighter Paulo Thiago who I completely forgot existed. Perez isn’t going to be a problem for any of the top boys at 185 but he’s decent, crafty and has some tricks up his sleeve. He’s certainly a decent test on paper for a debuting guy like Du Plessis.

 

And Topuria…

On 9/18/2020 at 4:14 PM, wandshogun09 said:

Youssef Zalal vs Ilia Topuria. Not massively familiar with these two but the little bit I’ve seen of Zalal he’s looked fun. He’s 24, 10-2 with 7 finishes and nicknamed ‘The Moroccan Devil’. Doesn’t fuck about either. Only made his UFC debut in February and he’s 3-0 in the Octagon already. I didn’t see his last fight but I love this picture which surfaced from it;

Now that’s a man who thoroughly enjoys his job right there. Never heard of Topuria. He’s jumping in to replace Seung Woo Choi here. Looking him up though, he sounds like a good signing. He’s Georgian, 23 years old and has a perfect record of 8-0 with 7 finishes, and only one has gone past a round. Hasn’t beat anyone you’d know yet so, as always, take his undefeated streak with a pinch of salt for now. But it’s always a good start. And even if they were all bums, he’s disposed of them as such. Can’t really ask for more than that. We’ll soon find out if he’s legit. 

 

I was optimistic about both there but it didn’t take long for me to become a doubter of DDP. His weird style just seemed like it shouldn’t work and I didn’t start becoming a believer until he forced me to by bashing up Robert Whittaker. At that point I had no choice. And we’ve seen what he’s done since. I was high on Topuria from early on though. Think the Ryan Hall fight was where I properly became a fan. That looks like a bit of a nothing win now compared to what Ilia’s gone on to do but at the time it was a battle of undefeated guys and Hall was thought to be a really tricky test for him. And Topuria just crushed him in a round.

31 minutes ago, jimufctna24 said:

I always smile when I read Ian Freeman's name btw.

Wanna feel old? His daughter is making her UFC debut on the Paris card in September.

 

[jimufctna24]

Yeah, I wasn't convinced about DDP until he beat Whittaker.

[Carbomb]

Fair enough! How did you find those threads? They never came up on any Google searches at all.

[wandshogun09]

1 minute ago, Carbomb said:

Fair enough! How did you find those threads? They never came up on any Google searches at all.

I just skipped back so many pages on here until I got to late 2020 and the threads were there. 

[Carbomb]

Just now, wandshogun09 said:

I just skipped back so many pages on here until I got to late 2020 and the threads were there. 

D'oh. Of course. I just got lazy and over-reliant on searching.

[Egg Shen]

On 7/7/2025 at 3:02 PM, jimufctna24 said:

Regarding who was the last hyped British Heavyweight prospect before Aspinall.

If I recall correctly, Al-Turk was hyped up on the forums for a while in the mid-2000s. Mostly due to him beating Henry Miller, Mark Kerr, and others in Cage Rage. He bombed in the UFC though, losing all 3 of his fights and retiring afterwards.

I always smile when I read Ian Freeman's name btw.

 

Maybe Phil De Fries? I'm sure he came in with a bit of hype but quickly got derailed (went 2-3) In hindsight, De Fries probably got into the UFC too early, he's absolutely smashing it now over in KSW. Won the Heavyweight title on his first night in and has defended it 12 times since, which is unheard of at Heavyweight. Who knows how well De Fries would do in the UFC these days, but he's probably a top 5 heavy in the World. Likely done very well for himself financially too.

As for other British Heavyweights who made it to the UFC, remember this lot...

Rob Broughton - went 1-2, mixed it with decent opposition in and outside of the UFC, retired in 2015.

Neil Grove - went 0-1. Grove's initial arrival was met with big hype because he sparked out James Thompson in about 10 seconds when no one knew who he was. Had a couple of good wins after the UFC but was getting on, ended up losing a bunch and retired in 2016.

Neil Wain - went 0-1, yeah, the ref. I don't remember this at all, but he had one fight in the UFC and got killed by Shane Carwin.

Oli Thompson - went 0-2. Former strongman, Thompson is still about, proper road warrior, he shows up on cards all over the place. I'd imagine Thompson would have been a bit of a cult hero if he's been around when Pride was in business.

It's pretty slim pickings amongst the big guys. As much as I loved watching UK MMA heavyweight fights, none of them were much cop, but given the right opponent they were usually fun to watch, just big old buggers who liked a punch-up. Might have to binge me some UK Heavweights this evening.

 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah De Fries is probably one of those Heavyweights who’s better off outside the UFC. He’s done well but I don’t think he’d have had huge success in the Stipe/Cormier/Ngannou era and he’s a friend and teammate of Aspinall so they wouldn’t fight each other if De Fries was in the UFC now. So there’d always be that ceiling no matter how many fights he won. It’d be kind of like when Makhachev was winning fights but with no direction because Khabib was champ. Hopefully De Fries has made good dough in KSW. If you’re not gonna be in the UFC, KSW is about as solid an alternative as you’re gonna get.

39 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Neil Wain - went 0-1, yeah, the ref. I don't remember this at all, but he had one fight in the UFC and got killed by Shane Carwin.

I was in attendance for that. UFC 89 here in Brum. Wain got fucking pummeled. I don’t know if it was just because I was in the arena but the sound Carwin’s finishing ground and pound was making was like none I’d ever heard before. It can’t all be because I was in the crowd either because I remember Rogan saying the thud of the punches on the ground was the loudest he’d heard and it sounded like someone was “dropping rubber mallets” on the canvas ?

Edited July 11, 2025 by wandshogun09

[jimufctna24]

Good call on De Fries. I can't remember reading any hype for him, but I can imagine it existed. I was actually in attendance for De Fries's UFC debut in November of 2011. He beat Broughton by decision. I remember absolutely nothing about the fight.

I remember more about Broughton (the Butterbean fight in front of the brass band), Grove (the aforementioned Thompson knock out), and even the likes of Buzz Berry (Shamrock fight) and Legeno (fixed fights). All of which occurred in Cage Rage.

Perhaps O'Donnell was a better promoter than I give him credit for

 

Edited July 11, 2025 by jimufctna24

[wandshogun09]

I vaguely recall someone on here knew De Fries. I’m thinking it was @METAL ON METAL back when he was a regular in the MMA threads but might be wrong? 

[Egg Shen]

the highlight of De Fries UFC career was knocking himself out on Todd Duffee's hip.

 

[wandshogun09]

I forgot all about that! 

[Egg Shen]

just doing another spot of fight searching on Tapology and got reminded of another UK Heavyweight who fought in the UFC.

Colin Robinson.

The name rings a bell, but again no real recollection of the fights. Went 0-2, stopped twice.

I was wrong about the referee too, Neil Wain. It was Neil Hall who was the UK referee.