Daniel Cormier Praises Tom Aspinall After UFC 304
Tom Aspinall’s one-minute victory over Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 prompted Daniel Cormier to describe him as the best heavyweight in the world. The former two-division champion’s assessment followed Aspinall’s successful interim title defense in Manchester on the July 27, 2024, event schedule.
A defense that strengthened Aspinall’s case
Aspinall stopped Blaydes with punches at 1:00 of round one. The official UFC report recorded a TKO, giving the English heavyweight another rapid finish and reversing the outcome of their injury-shortened 2022 meeting.
He entered Manchester already holding the interim belt, which he had won against Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 in November 2023. UFC 304 was his first defense of that championship. It strengthened his position rather than crowning him with the interim title for the first time.
Cormier’s praise and its limits
On the Good Guy/Bad Guy discussion after the event, Cormier argued that Aspinall’s performance placed him at the top of the heavyweight field. He also questioned whether Jon Jones would beat the Englishman, while stopping short of treating that potential result as a certainty.
That was an analyst’s judgment about competitive quality. Jones remained the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion at the time. Cormier’s endorsement did not transfer Jones’ belt, change the official championship structure or establish that a unification bout had been booked.
Why the performance generated that debate
Aspinall had shown that he could finish a major contender without needing prolonged exchanges. Against Blaydes, he found the damaging strike and immediately followed it with offense on the ground. The short duration gave the audience an emphatic image of his speed and finishing ability.
It also resolved a personal piece of his UFC history. Their first meeting had ended after fifteen seconds because of Aspinall’s knee injury. Winning the rematch through a completed finishing sequence made the result more satisfying and more useful as evidence of his development.
The heavyweight conversation in its 2024 context
At the time, Jones was expected to face Stipe Miocic, leaving debate about when the interim champion would receive a unification opportunity. Aspinall used his post-fight appearance to express interest in Jones, and commentators discussed how forcefully he should pursue that matchup.
Those discussions reflected the gap between championship status and opinions about the division’s strongest active competitor. Manchester gave Aspinall an important win and a prominent advocate in Cormier. It did not answer the hypothetical Jones matchup inside the cage. The lasting story is an interim champion’s decisive defense and the debate it intensified about the heavyweight division’s next step.
Sources
- Report of Cormier’s post-UFC 304 assessment
- UFC 304 official co-main event result
- UFC background on Aspinall’s interim title and rematch
- Aspinall’s official UFC 304 Octagon interview
Sources: sports.yahoo.com
Tags
MMA, Combat Sports
