Tom Aspinall breaks silence on ‘leaked' Jon Jones substitute opponent as Dana White scrambles to make UFC blockbuster

The Sun

7 hours ago

TOM ASPINALL has reacted to supposedly "leaked" news about his next fight.
The Wigan warrior has been on course for a historic heavyweight title unification bout with MMA great Jon Jones since last November.
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But the mammoth melee has yet to come to fruiton, despite the UFC brass breaking their pay structure and agreeing to Jones' demands to be paid " F**K YOU MONEY" for the fight.
Aspinall, 32, has seemingly moved on from a showdown with Jones, who he claims has retired, and recently claimed his next fight will be announced imminently.
MMA sleuths have claimed his videographer accidentally leaked that the interim heavyweight king's next outing will be against Cyril Gane.
The apparent "leak" came in the form of the videographer asking Aspinall if Paddy Pimblett is a "good training partner" for the Frenchman during their recent link-up.
Prominent fight news page Freak MMA shared the clip on Instagram with the caption: "Did Tom Aspinall's cameraman accidentally leak Aspinall vs Cyril Gane?"
Among the slew of comments, one fight fan insisted that the cameraman's comments were nothing more than "northern humour".
And Aspinall responded to the post, writing "this" with an up-pointing hand and laughing emojis.
He later added with another laughing emoji: "I'm training for [Alexander] Volkov and [Jailton] Almeida this week."
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Aspinall has been left in limbo over the last few months as former pound-for-pound Jones and ummed and ahhed with the prospect of retirement.
But the Atherton assassin recently claimed he has a date and location for his next outing.
MMA fans are hoping beyond hope that Aspinall's next fight will be against Jones, although their optimism about the fight coming to fruition is fast waning.
And UFC CEO and President Dana White 's once bullish belief that the melee will happen is also seemingly fading.
During the UFC 316 post-fight press conference, he admitted: "Listen, you can't make people fight.
"If Jon doesn't want to fight, you can't make him fight.
"We can try to make him fight, we can throw things at him that inspire him to want to fight. But we'll figure it out"
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He later added: "Jon Jones agreed to do the fight.
"Jon Jones was offered the deal and accepted the deal. Jon agreed to fight Tom, yes.
'You guys have heard me for the last however long, 'I guarantee this fight is going to happen. This fight's going to happen.'
"You guys told me the crazy s**t that's going on Instagram, and all these other places.
"But yes, I've been saying Jon is going to fight Tom.'