A day short of a year after he suffered a devastating knee injury just 15 seconds into a pivotal fight in his career with Curtis Blaydes, Tom Aspinall returned in style at the O2 Arena on Saturday in the main event of UFC London.

Aspinall opened the bout with a kick that rocked Marcin Tybura and he never slowed up after that. He dropped Tybura with a straight right hand and immediately went for the finish. He landed several hard punches while Tybura was on the seat of his pants and against the cage, forcing referee Marc Goddard to stop it just 1:13 into the bout.

Aspinall admitted in the cage that the last 12 months “were a really tough year for me.” He tore his meniscus and his MCL and damaged his ACL. He was confident going into the fight that his body would hold up, but one never knows until they test it in competition.

It was a kick against Blaydes that damaged his knee. And he opened the same way, blasting Tybura with a kick that sent Tybura stumbling backward.

Aspinall, ranked fifth in the UFC heavyweight division entering the bout, was on the attack the entire time. He threw a straight right that landed on the butt of the chin and it was all but over.

He said he will go to Paris in September to meet the winner of Ciryl Gane and Sergei Spivak. He said he’ll beat the winner and then would want to fight heavyweight champion Jon Jones.