Tom Aspinall is still waiting to fight Jon Jones for the UFC heavyweight title. The long wait hasn’t stopped him from making UFC history.
Jones is currently the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion. He claimed the vacant belt in 2023, soon after Francis Ngannou vacated the title, with a quick submission of Ciryl Gane. Unfortunately, Jones has been incredibly choosy with his fights since then. He has fought just once since winning the title, battering a shopworn Stipe Miocic to a third-round TKO win last fall.
The fight with Miocic was the source of a lot of controversy for Jones and the UFC. That’s because Aspinall is the promotion’s interim heavyweight champion, which should mean that he gets a shot at the undisputed belt before anybody else — even a legend like Miocic. Instead, Aspinall was forced to defend his interim belt against Curtis Blaydes last summer — just months before Jones fought Miocic. Considering interim belts are intended to keep a division moving while the undisputed champ is away, it was all quite farcical, but to borrow a popular MMA adage, it is what it is.
The silver lining for Aspinall is that he has made some history while waiting around for Jones. Having won his interim title with a first-round knockout or Sergei Pavlovich way back in November of 2023, he has now surpassed Renan Barao’s interim title reign at bantamweight to become the longest-reigning interim champ in UFC history.
MMA Fighting reporter Jed Meshew was first to point out Aspinall’s new record.
Will Tom Aspinall and Jon Jones ever fight?
While Tom Aspinall is still holding out hope for a fight with Jones, it’s looking more and more unlikely. In fact, prominent MMA analyst Din Thomas believes Aspinall will most likely fight again at UFC 317 this summer — and probably not against Jones.
“Tom’s going to have to defend [the interim belt],” Thomas told MMA Junkie, speaking of Aspinall’s goal of fighting again this summer. “There’s no way Jon Jones accepts that fight [this summer]. He says he needs more time to prepare. It’s not like he didn’t know about this for the last two years. … The more and more time that passes, the more and more I think Jon is just pulling us along and may not ever take this fight.”
“If I had to put my money on it, I think they convince Tom Aspinall to fight Ciryl Gane,” he added. “We’re two months out [from UFC 317], and I think they’ll throw a number. Tom wants to fight and he’ll be like, ‘All right, I’ll fight.’ Then they’ll throw a number at Ciryl Gane. It won’t be ideal for him, but they’ll throw a number he can’t refuse and he’ll have to take it, and I think it makes more sense that way.”
Title defenses are more important than days held.
Comments ^
Aspinal is also the only fighter to break his own leg
This is ridiculous
No fault of Aspinall, hes waiting for Jones whos making all the excuses
But a longest interim reign ever with fuck all fights
HW is also slow… Has least title fights of any division to start with.
Tom Aspinall is the Heavyweight Champion Of The World.
Jon Jones is a piece of shit pussy
“He’s saying, ‘I am the interim champion, I am willing to compete, which if the undisputed champion is not willing to do, I then get those duties’.
“If Tom is saying, ‘I’m not going to defend my belt, we take the belt back’. I’m ok with Tom getting the undisputed belt, by the way, this isn’t like against Tom.
“He should not be the interim champion. The moment he says, ‘I’m not going to defend it’, he should not be the interim champion.”
‘Jon Jones has a concern’… Chael Sonnen says the heavyweight champion has a major worry over fighting Tom Aspinall
Sonnen claims Jones is very worried about one thing ahead of a potential match-up with the one man everyone wants to see him face.
I’m curious. Who writes these? Don’t get me wrong, i enjoy them. But the writing style is so much like Kirik’s - always upside down. The lead is always buried and i know I’m going to scroll through the first 2 or 3 paragraphs to get to what the article is supposedly about.
Chael has the dumbest takes in mma. I’m not even sure wtf point he is trying to make in that article.
LOL Dont Blame The Messenger