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Heavyweight prospect Mick Parkin suffered the first defeat of his career at UFC London.
The 13-fight card kicked off with a massive upset as Guram Kutateladze, who literally had Ilia Topuria and Khamzat Chimaev in his corner, was brutalized en route to a unanimous decision loss against Kaue Fernandes at the O2 Arena on Saturday night.
UFC London delivered another epic preliminary fight as Shauna Bannon survived what looked to be a fight-ending head kick before locking up an armbar submission to tap out Puja Tomar inside two rounds.
However, the most anticipated undercard fight saw Mick Parkin, who frequently trains and spars with interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall, square off against #8 ranked contender Marcin Tybura.
Mick Parkin vs Marcin Tybura result
Aspinall needed just 73 seconds to knock out Tybura when they clashed in July 2023.
However, it quickly became clear that Parkin would be made to work much harder at UFC London.
In round one, the heavyweight duo settled into a kickboxing match that was evenly matched through five minutes before Tybura tried to steal the round by securing a late takedown.
The Polish fighter, who brought a massive group of fans over for his latest fight, started the second round well, landing two massive overhand punches before an unfortunate slip allowed Parkin to take top position.
Once there, the 29-year-old hammered away with massive strikes that had his opponent’s head bouncing off the floor, and the British fight fans, including Aspinall, sensed that a knockout win was near.
Tybura showed his toughness to take all the punishment and counter with a leg lock attempt that allowed him to get back up – but he ate more punches on the feet before being floored again at the end of a dominant second stanza for Parkin.
The final round settled back into a kickboxing match, which Tybura seemed to get the better of as he threw more volume. Ultimately, the judges agreed as all three of them scored the fight 29-28 in his favor.
Will Mick Parkin ever fight Tom Aspinall?
In the lead-up to UFC London, Parkin considered a future fight with the interim heavyweight champion.
The Englishman insisted only a massive amount of money would make him consider facing Aspinall.
“It’s been brought up a few times,” Parkin said during an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow.
“Messing about together, he’s always winding us up about it. He says, ‘F—— hell, two more wins, mate, and we’ll be in there.’ Because there’s always talk about him not being able to get fights.
“Look, he is my friend, and he’s helped me out loads in my career. I’ve trained with him for so long now that we are good friends. I hope he does get the Jon Jones fight and he retires with a load of money – that’s what we need to push him out of the way.
“There’s potentially still 10 more guys I’ve got to fight to get there. So, it’s still a long way off for me. Unless it was for crazy money, I probably wouldn’t be fighting Tom.”
For now, he’s got to focus on bouncing back from the first defeat of his 11-fight MMA career.