Mailbag: What now for Tom Aspinall and the UFC's heavyweight division?

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25-06-2025

What should happen now in the UFC's heavyweight division, with Jon Jones officially out and Tom Aspinall promoted to undisputed champ? Would it have been better for Jones to fight and even lose than to go out like … this? And should Charles Oliveira really be that big of an underdog against Ilia Topuria at UFC 317?
All that and more in this week's mailbag. To ask a question of your own, hit up @benfowlkesmma or @benfowlkes.bsky.social.
@NeedXtoseePosts: Is the nightmare scenario now, Tommy Gas Hands manages to lose to Gane, or whoever is next?
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No, the nightmare scenario was what we just lived through. The UFC's heavyweight champ flatly refuses to fight the interim champ, while the UFC CEO keeps insisting he'll come around and it'll all work out fine eventually. That was a colossal waste of everybody's time. Most importantly, it was a waste of Tom Aspinall's time, and it's a real shame to see a fighter lose basically an entire year of his prime waiting around for other people to get it together.
That said, I can't act like I'd be super pumped for Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane right now. Regardless of who wins, it just feels … mediocre. I feel more or less the same about basically every possible contender in the top five of the division. Every one of them seems like a plan B (or worse), and also it's heavyweight so who knows, they could mess around and win.
The two best ideas I can see for Aspinall's first title defense are Francis Ngannou and Alex Pereira, in that order. If the UFC could get Ngannou back for that fight it would instantly solve all the problems at heavyweight. He's still the lineal champ, after all. He has a more legitimate claim to the title than Jon Jones ever did. If you could book Aspinall vs. Ngannou, it wouldn't matter who won. The UFC would have a genuine heavyweight champ, and an exciting one.
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And please, I don't want to hear any of this crap about how Ngannou would need to present himself humbly or mend fences with White in order to come back. The UFC should be begging him to come back. It needs him more than he needs it, and anyway he did nothing wrong. A fighter actually knowing his worth — and getting it, after standing up for himself — should be something we cheer as fans.
The other option, Pereira, is less appealing but still workable. He's one of the few fighters out there with actual star power, even after that loss to Magomed Ankalaev. If he went up in weight we'd have the historic three-division champ possibility to get excited about. Plus it would just be a fun fight from a stylistic perspective. Still much better than any of the current heavyweight backup options, if you ask me (and you did).
@beastin364: I'm looking at UFC 317 odds and see Do Bronx as a +330 dog. That seems way off to me. Is it me who's crazy or the sports books?
I absolutely see why he'd be an underdog against Ilia Topuria, who's done nothing but look miles ahead of absolutely everybody he's faced. But I was expecting something in the +200 range here. Just the size difference alone, especially with a guy like Charles Oliveira who has such a great ground game, should be enough to make us wonder.
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If Topuria gets to do his stuff — which is to say, fight at boxing range and back Oliveira into the fence, where he can string together combinations in close — he wins easily. But 'Do Bronx' is a sneaky good wrestler and a terror on the mat. That extra size could make a big difference if he ends up on top and Topuria can't move him.
@AaronWHoward: What do you think of the UFC bringing Sedriques Dumas back this weekend after his recent headlines
For those unaware of the recent headlines, Dumas was arrested for home invasion and battery of his ex-girlfriend, who is also the mother of his child. It's not the first time he's been arrested for something like that, either. This latest incident happened just a couple weeks after his last UFC fight, a loss to Michal Oleksiejczuk in April.
There's been no official word yet on exactly why he was pulled out of this fight less than a week out, but on Monday his attorney reportedly filed a motion to modify the bond agreement that kept him limited to a 100-mile radius of his home while on GPS monitoring, so it's likely that the two things are related.
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Mostly what I want to know is how we even got here. I don't always love how the UFC treats fighters like 95% are just interchangeable parts, but shouldn't the one upside be that you can drop guys like this without losing anything? If he can't stay out of handcuffs long enough to show up for fights, and if the thing he keeps getting arrested for is the thing White once said was 'something you don't come back from,' what are we even doing?
It's bad enough when the UFC puts up with stuff like this from champs or top contenders. But from some win-one-lose-one mid-card guy like Dumas? That's just baffling. In a perfect world, the UFC wouldn't book him unless/until he's cleared, just due to ethical concerns. In a less perfect world, the bad publicity that would come with booking a fighter while he still has an ankle monitor and a pending charge would make it not worth it. But even in this deeply imperfect world, a fighter of his caliber just can't be worth this fight week headache, can it?
@MMAGoddess: What would have been worse for Jon Jones' legacy? Pulling the shenanigans he just pulled, or losing in the cage against Tom?
Losing is something we can understand. Especially in this context. Jones, the aging great, goes in there and gets knocked out by Aspinall, a bigger, younger man on the way up? There's no shame in that. We've seen it before and we know that's usually how it goes. But spending his last few years in the sport picking his spots, then bouncing the instant there's a real challenge? That's a bad look. Combine it with allegations of yet another vehicular misadventure — one that is shockingly similar to the kind of stuff he's been doing for years now — and this embarrassing exit actually feels strangely perfect for him.
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You know what's really wild? This incident happened back in February. So all this time that Jones has been telling us how he's living his best life, monetizing this incredible personal brand he's built while enjoying his immense personal growth, he knew he had this thing still hanging over his head. And yeah, he appeared to admit in an unhinged tweet storm that it was him on the phone in that body cam video telling the cops he can have them killed, because he's apparently intent on making his lawyer's job as difficult as possible.
All of this is part of Jones' legacy. By going out (for now) like this, he only cements it in people's minds that this kind of thing was always part of his story — and it really, truly was. Can you imagine the alternate universe where he stays out of trouble and the worst thing we could say about him was that he lost one (1) fight to a bigger, younger opponent at the end of his career? There's no way that isn't a better reality for him.
@justlikelasagna: I myself am not looking to take any trips abroad currently, but isn't it at least kind of nice that the UFC goes to places no other organization would consider. NBA NFL etc. sure it's for $ but the local fans get a huge treat.
That is definitely a positive way to think of it. I mean, attending a UFC event is typically pretty expensive, so it's not exactly charity work the company is doing out in places like Azerbaiijin, but still. It is nice for those fans to get a chance to see an event in their own backyard. It would also be nice for those fans in places where the local government doesn't pay up to bring the UFC to town.
@702_dylan: Thoughts on "custom" fight shorts being made for some fighters? Should it be champs only? Main events on PPVs? Other criteria?
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Why not every fighter who competes in the UFC? It's weird to me that we think having your own shorts is such a treasured privilege that should only be available to the best of the best. All these people are fighting in the top organization in this sport. They're on ESPN (streaming or otherwise). They're supposed to be the elite athletes in this sport, right? It doesn't seem like it should be so impossible to provide them each with one pair of shorts made just for them.
@IkeFeldman: Who wins Ngannou vs Aspinall?
And prime v prime fantasy fight who wins: Chuck Liddell vs Alex Pereira?
In a battle between two big heavyweight knockout artists, I have to favor the younger man, so I'll take Aspinall. And while we can debate exactly when Liddell's and Pereira's respective primes were, I'll take Pereira there. He's a bigger and better athlete than Liddell ever was, and a more skilled striker overall.
We also forget sometimes just how much better overall MMA fighters are now than they were even just 15 or 20 years ago. It's like asking if Babe Ruth would still be cranking homers if he had to face Greg Maddux or Randy Johnson. Deep in our hearts we all know he'd watch those pitches go by him and assume it was the work of the devil.
@BlaowPlaow: If you could not decrease the schedule demands of the current UFC model, how would you go about improving the product?
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Most suggestions I see center around reducing roster size and quantity of fight cards. While I agree we would benefit, I don't see this as a realistic option.
You're right that it's not an option that anyone at TKO is even considering. So my suggestion would be to inject more fun into the product. Try some different stuff. Let the personalities shine a bit more.
Right now one of the UFC's biggest strengths is also a weakness, and that's the well-oiled machine of its live event production. This promotion has been doing exactly this for so long that everyone there could do it in their sleep. And sometimes it feels like they are. It's almost robotic, just churning out fight content and then moving on to the next one. With fight sports especially, people are there to see a show as much as a sport. But a lot of times when you're watching the UFC on TV now, it just feels like you're watching a sausage factory churn out more sausage.