This weekend's UFC London event was the first held in England in three years due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and Dana White made sure that his company's return would make up for lost time.

From top to bottom – literally in this case as the opening prelim bout, which took place in front of almost exactly nobody, featured top prospect Muhammad Mokaev – this event was loaded with talent from or based in the UK. Not only that but the fighters themselves knew this was a special event and gave it their all; Olympic gold medalist and former UFC bantamweight and featherweight champ-champ Henry Cejudo called it the best non-PPV event UFC have ever held.

However, in the buildup, you would have been forgiven of you thought this event was only about one man: Paddy "The Baddie" Pimblett. The Liverpudlian fighter is being positioned by the UFC as the next Conor McGregor. He's young, cocky, quick to coin a catchphrase and stir controversy and he has a rabid, marginalized fanbase behind him who the UFC hope will follow him everywhere.

But the UFC have already learned the lesson of Conor McGregor. Every member of the fabled "Irish Invasion" that came in his wake has been a bust and even his gym, SBG Ireland, has been unable to produce a second fighter good enough to be called mediocre. To recreate that with Pimblett would be far too short sighted for the UFC.

This is why The Baddie fought midway through the card and the main event featured Manchester-born, Liverpool-based heavyweight Tom Aspinall. A far cry from Pimblett, Aspinall is quiet, thoughtful and very clearly intending to be in the sport for a long time. Having won four fights in a row since he arrived in the UFC, three in the first round, one in the fourth and all besides for his TKO victory over Alan Baudot getting him a Performance of the Night bonus, a more eager fighter would be on social media calling for big money fights against Francis Ngannou, Ciryl Gane and other headliners.

Aspinall instead has repeatedly talked about wanting to move up the rankings slowly but surely, facing guys with skills about his level so he can learn, improve and then when he's truly ready, take on the heavyweight champion.

His last three wins came over specialists, each more difficult than the last: Baudot is a sloppy, heavy hitter; veteran Andrei Arlovski is a combat sambo maestro who knows everything about Octagon control and Sergey Spivak is a strong grappler. At UFC London he was set for his toughest test yet as Alexander Volkov is a true all-rounder who has only ever lost in the UFC to title contenders.

You wouldn't have known this was a step up in competition from Aspinall's relaxed walkout to Move on Up by Curtis Mayfield. And he didn't seem phased either doing simple footwork mobility drills while waiting for "Drago" Volkov to make his entrance. Nor when he stood face-to-face with his opponent for the pre-fight rule summary and shook Volkov's hand in a simple showing of respect.

Fifteen seconds into the fight Aspinall landed a clean one-two-three combination on Volkov, then following some lightning fast defense against Volkov's response, Aspinall took him down with ease.

While in side position, Aspinall threw some simple but hard ground and pound. What was most interesting is that, as he was doing it, he looked a little distracted. Commentator Michael Bisping, ringside and directly in front of him, later said he was listening to the advice of his cornermen who were shouting from the other side of the cage.

They must have been giving good advice. The attempt at a kimura that didn't work the first time got the victory when Aspinall applied it for the second time after taking Volkov down again, only minutes later.

At 3:45 of round one, Tom Aspinall tapped out Alexander Volkov, the sixth ranked fighter in the UFC heavyweight top 10, and he didn't even break a sweat doing it. Paddy the Baddie might get the headlines, but Aspinall is the real deal and his big moment couldn't have come at a better time.