UK fighters put British MMA on the map at a violently fantastic UFC London

In the early 1960s, four friends from England got together and captivated the world with their fabulous music. The Beatles in that decade went on to become arguably the most iconic band of all time.

On Saturday at O2 Arena, four young Brits appeared on a fight card together. While it was not as history-changing as the Beatles’ debut, Tom Aspinall, Paddy Pimblett, Arnold Allen and Molly McCann on Saturday took mixed martial arts to new heights in the United Kingdom.

The Brits each won their UFC bouts by finish, all in impressive fashion. In the main event, Aspinall looked every bit the star he’d been hyped up to be, dominating Alexander Volkov and finishing him with a straight armlock at 3:45 of the first.

In the co-main, the somehow underappreciated and underrated Allen stopped Dan Hooker in 2:33 of the first to win his 11th straight and his ninth in a row in the UFC to raise his MMA record to 18-1.

Pimblett, the cocky and colorful lightweight, overcome early adversity against Rodrigo Vargas to submit him at 4:25 of the first.

And McCann, like Pimblett (and The Beatles) from Liverpool, finished Luana Carolina with a vicious spinning elbow that might have been a fantastic card’s greatest single moment.

The crowd rarely sat down Saturday, engaged by the fantastic battles that took place, with each of the nine fighters who got finishes earning a $50,000 post-fight bonus.

The U.K. has long produced elite boxers, and one of them, ex-unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, watched from ringside. But despite Michael Bisping winning the UFC’s middleweight title and going into the UFC Hall of Fame, it hasn’t been a hotbed for great mixed martial artists.

That, though, appears to be changing, with the four fighters from England leading the charge.

Aspinall is simply brilliant, and different from most of his peers in that he’s thoughtful and introspective, and not prone to outrageous and hyperbolic trash talk like Pimblett.

But he showed against the sixth-ranked Volkov the kind of skills that could lead him to the promised land. He’s 6-foot-5 and weighed 253 pounds on Saturday, but showed great agility and dexterity.

He was far too quick for Volkov, both in wrestling and striking. The finishing sequence came when Aspinall used his quickness to slip a head kick and a straight right from Volkov and transition to a double-leg takedown.

Aspinall looked over at his corner briefly for instructions and then quickly maneuvered into the armlock, forcing the tap. He got the finish at 3:45 and probably will move up to no worse than No. 6 in the UFC rankings when they come out on Tuesday.

He’s a clear blue-chipper, unlike Bisping, who was best known for his grit and his attitude. Bisping was a massive underdog to Luke Rockhold when he won the title and he was known more for his trash talk and irritating opponents than he was for his skills.

Aspinall and Allen are absolutely the real deal. McCann is a step below them, though it’s hard to criticize her work after she put on a show and had the moment of the night with the spinning back elbow KO that left Carolina flat on her back for several scary moments in the cage.

A former Cage Warriors champion, Pimblett’s got the talking part down. But while he’s clearly a quality fighter, it’s far from a given that he’s as gifted as either Aspinall or Allen.

He’s taking the Conor McGregor approach from McGregor’s early UFC days. But while McGregor talked well and was extremely witty, he also proved to be an elite fighter with excellent power as well as speed and quickness.

Pimblett shows vulnerabilities that could catch up to him in the deep and crowded lightweight division. He’s nowhere near ready for the likes of champion Charles Oliveira or challengers such as Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, Islam Makhachev, Beneil Dariush and Tony Ferguson, among others.

Those men would play with him like kids pulling the wings off a bug at this point. He may develop into that kind of fighter, but he’s not there yet. But give the man credit: He was in a bad position against a determined opponent and reversed it and got a submission. The pressure on him was massive, considering the attention he commanded, and he came through.

Allen’s only issue is competing in a division that may be the UFC’s best, where Alexander Volkanovski is the champion and Max Holloway, Brian Ortega, Yair Rodriguez, Chan Sung Jung, Calvin Kattar and Josh Emmett are the fighters ranked ahead of him. Giga Chikadze, Bryce Mitchell and Dan Ige are immediately behind him.

But Allen, of Ipswich, England, made easy and short work of Hooker, a quality veteran who has a number of big wins on his record. Allen powered through Hooker as easily as anyone ever has and, like Aspinall, looked very much like a future champion.

Having one star fighter often helps generate interest in the sport in a given country and spawns the development of other fighters. These four will do more for British MMA with their success than Dana White ever could by talking about how great the sport is.

It’s possible none of the four wins a title, like Bisping was able to do. The heavyweights are suddenly loaded, with champion Francis Ngannou leading a group that includes Ciryl Gane, Stipe Miocic, Tai Tuivasa, Derrick Lewis and, soon, ex-light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. That’s a lot of quality.

Featherweight is filled with standouts and there could be as many as six Hall of Famers in the lightweight division (Oliveira, Gaethje, Poirier, Makhachev, Ferguson and McGregor).

McCann’s win made her 5-3 in the UFC, and she’s not ranked yet, so it’s a long climb up.

That said, they lit the motivational fires under a number of young men and women Saturday. McGregor attended UFC 92 to watch Tom Egan, and that inspired him to go hard after MMA success. Aspinall and Pimblett said they, too, had been fans motivated to train by watching cards in person and on television.

Their contributions to the sport, specifically in England, are going to be immense, and it’s going to be more than just with what they do in the cage.