Bisping, Hardy, Till: The best British MMA fighters in history ahead of UFC London

Tom Aspinall can record one of the all-time great wins for a Brit on home soil should he defeat Russian veteran Alexander Volkov.

The UFC returns to London this weekend as Aspinall takes on Volkov at the O2 Arena on March 19.

A win for Aspinall – who is a training partner of Darren Till – would keep him in the running to face Francis Ngannou for the heavyweight title.

But it will also see him make a claim to being one of the best British fighters in MMA history on Saturday night.

Here, GIVEMESPORT runs down the top ten – the kind of list the likes of Arnold Allen, Molly McCann, Paddy Pimblett and Jack Shore will all hope to be on in the future.

Starting with the most obvious one first, Michael Bisping is without a doubt the greatest MMA fighter ever to come from these shores.

Despite only having one eye, Bisping, 43, is the only British UFC champion in the history of MMA.

An analyst and pundit for ESPN, Bisping defeated Anderson Silva in February 2016, starched Luke Rockhold in June 2016, and avenged his defeat to Dan Henderson in October 2016.

Dan Hardy had the somewhat misfortune of being born in the same era as Georges St-Pierre.

Like Bisping, Hardy also fought a who’s-who of MMA including Carlos Condit, Anthony Johnson, Rory Markham and Mike Swick, winning far more than he lost.

Nicknamed The Outlaw, Hardy also showed a tremendous amount of courage when he twice refused to tap to St-Pierre much to the delight of the New Jersey crowd in March 2010.

A personal favourite of UFC president Dana White, Brad Pickett always tried to put on a show for the fans no matter the occasion.

‘One Punch’, 43, was known for his aggressive fighting style, able to finish a fight either on the feet or on the floor. Did we mention he