With a potential fight against UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones yet to be announced and no end to what has become an absolute debacle in sight, Tom Aspinall has declared himself the promotion’s undisputed heavyweight champ.
The interim champ appeared on ESPN’s Good Guy/Bad Guy recently, speaking with hosts Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen, to address the issue.
“Jon’s retired,” Aspinall said on the show. “What are you talking about? You guys don’t follow Jon on social media? The guy is living his best life. He’s had a fantastic career, we all know. We know Jon’s a religious man, so I want to say God bless him moving forward, what he does in his life and his career, and we move on. We move on. I’m the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. I’m ready to take on all comers, get this division moving again.”
“Us guys have been waiting around too long, you know. The guys, the contenders are getting sick of it, everybody’s getting sick of it, even the fans are getting sick of this stuff. So Jon’s retired and it’s time that we move on.”
It’s hard to blame the British heavyweight, though some of his comments might be a little tongue-in-cheek. Aspinall captured the UFC interim heavyweight championship November of 2023, and had defended it once, defeating Curtis Blaydes in July 2024. Since then, Aspinall has waited while Jon Jones cruised to an easy win over former heavyweight great Stipe Miocic. And then while Jones campaigned for a fight with Alex Pereira, which fell through when “Poatan” was dethroned by Magomed Ankalaev earlier this year.
Jones vs. Aspinall is a fight UFC CEO and President Dana White has promised will come to fruition, with many expecting it to come as part of the promotion’s annual trip to New York City in the fall. Still, there’s been no word of the fight actually being booked.
Tom Aspinall, however, feels Jones has one foot out the door, which has him believing Jones’ career is a wrap.
“If one guy’s thinking about retiring, he’s retired,” stated Aspinall. “I ain’t thinking about retiring, I’m thinking about getting this division active, making the heavyweight division great again, getting these big fights in, fighting these contenders who are sat on the sidelines, waiting for over a year at this point. I’m here to fight, man.”
While stating Jones deserves all the credit and money he gets, Aspinall added that “I’m the active guy, I’m going to fight somebody and that’s going to be announced pretty soon.” When pressed, however, the Brit wasn’t willing to discuss just what that announcement might be.
Is other fight news coming soon? Or is Aspinall hoping to goad Jones into taking the fight?
