5 contenders for the Fight of the Night award at UFC London: Alexander Volkov vs. Tom Aspinall

#4. UFC heavyweight: Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Sergei Pavlovich

Shamil Abdurakhimov may have his hands full with Sergei Pavlovich this weekend

Everyone knows that the UFC brass love a good heavyweight brawl. While this weekend’s main event between Alexander Volkov and Tom Aspinall features two of the promotion’s better big men in action, the wilder heavyweight bout could be on the undercard.

The fight in question sees Dagestani brawler Shamil Abdurakhimov face heavy-handed Russian Sergei Pavlovich in a clash that is highly likely to end in a knockout.

Sure, Abdurakhimov is not always the most entertaining fighter to watch, as he dragged both Andrei Arlovski and Derrick Lewis into slower-paced slogs. However, at times, he can be entertaining, particularly if he’s on the wrong end of some heavy blows.

That seems likely to happen this weekend. Pavlovich has not fought since October 2019, but prior to his absence, he looked like one of the hottest heavyweight prospects in the world, with a total of 14 wins to his name, 11 of which came by knockouts.

Essentially, Pavlovich is likely to keep this one on the feet and force Abdurakhimov into a brawl. On paper that should favor the Russian, but as it’s heavyweight MMA, you never know.

Therefore, if these two big punches get into a wild exchange, it could definitely produce a Fight of the Night contender.

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#3. UFC lightweight: Paddy Pimblett vs. Kazula Vargas

Can Paddy Pimblett produce the goods in the octagon this weekend?

On the face of it, the truth is that the UFC are probably hoping that the lightweight bout between Paddy Pimblett and Kazula Vargas doesn’t actually produce a Fight of the Night contender.

In fact, due to his highly marketable personality, the promotion would probably prefer Pimblett to pick up a one-sided win. However, will that really be the case?

The answer is, perhaps. After all, Pimblett has more overall MMA experience than Vargas and appears to be light years beyond the Mexican on the ground, particularly given 'Kazula's bad loss to Alex da Silva Coelho in that area in 2019.

However, as we saw when ‘The Baddy’ fought Luigi Vendramini in his octagon debut, Pimblett tends to fight in a wildly aggressive manner, meaning that he can find himself in trouble against opponents he ought to beat more easily.

Therefore, if the native of Liverpool decides to brawl with Vargas, even if he ends up taking the path of least resistance by taking him down later in the fight, we could be in for serious fireworks, making this an outside bet for the Fight of the Night award.