The moments, as they say, were priceless.

Referee Dan Miragliotta dove over the prone body of Sergei Pavlovich and left winner and new interim heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall to let the emotion envelop him.

And it did.

The 30-year-old Brit initially went face-first to the mat in jubilation, then alternated between climbing the cage and holding his head in his hands. And when UFC boss Dana White swooped in to wrap the shiny second-tier belt around the winner's waist, the tears arrived.

And when Aspinall unbuckled the strap and laid it across the shoulder of his father, they flowed.

"It's been a crazy two-and-a-half weeks," Aspinall said, referencing the lead-in time he had to prepare after Jon Jones' injury scrubbed the would-be main event. "If you ever get the chance to do something and you're scared to do it, you should definitely f--king do it.

"(Pavlovich) is a big scary guy. I've never been as scared. But I've got power, too, and I believe in myself."

The belief paid off the instant a right hand delivered as the back end of a one-two combination landed high on Pavlovich's temple and left the 6'3", 259-pound Russian stumbling drunkenly.

A follow-up combination landed just as flush and sent Pavlovich to the floor, where three hammer fists drew Miragliotta's arrival.

"I was struggling with the distance," said Aspinall, who stands 6'5" and weighs 261 pounds himself, "but we got there."

Daniel Cormier suggested Aspinall's interim title will ultimately become a full-fledged title if Jones' injury absence lasts several months. And Joe Rogan said, regardless of his belt status, that he'll be tough to beat in the weight class.

"Nobody in the heavyweight division is as fast as that cat," Rogan said. "He's dangerous. For everybody."