Interim UFC Heavyweight Champ Tom Aspinall Bored Of Jon Jones Talk
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - JULY 27: Tom Aspinall of England reacts after his knockout victory against ... More Curtis Blaydes in the interim UFC heavyweight championship bout during the UFC 304 event at Co-op Live on July 27, 2024 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall is nearing his breaking point when it comes to waiting for a title unification bout with UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 16: Interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall looks on during the ... More UFC heavyweight championship fight during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
"I'm well bored of it. I've had enough," Aspinall said on the High Performance Podcast. "Either we need to fight, or I need to move on and do something else. And like I said, I'm gonna find out. Literally, today is the day that I've been waiting three, four months for, and I'm gonna find out today what's going on."
Aspinall won the interim UFC heavyweight crown in November 2023 with a knockout victory over Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295. Aspinall took that fight on short notice when the original main event for that card, Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic for Jones's heavyweight title was scrapped following an injury to Jones.
Despite Aspinall winning the interim crown, UFC CEO Dana White remained steadfast in saying that Jones vs. Miocic was the fight to make.
That fight did not take place until November 2024. Jones held on to his belt that night, beating Miocic by TKO in the third round. By that time, Aspinall had already defended his interim crown, scoring a first-round knockout win over Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in July 2024.
Aspinall has been waiting for the title unification bout with Jones since Jones's win over Miocic in November. In late April, Miocic became the longest-serving UFC interim champion, topping the 535-day reign of Renan Barao, who defended his interim title twice before being named undisputed champion.
"Me, personally, I can't do anything," Aspinall said about the Jones fight. "I think it's just down to money, I think, on his side. So I will fight whenever, wherever he wants. But it's down to money, I think."
"I just think that at this stage in his career, he's had an amazing career," the interim champ continued. "He's like 37, 38 years old, but not only that, he's got a million miles on the clock. So he's got a lot of damage on the body. He's took a lot of shots to the head, and that's not me saying anything negative about it. That's the reality of it. And I'm sure Jon Jones is aware of that."
"When you put him in with, I'm not trying to blow my own trumpet, but I'm literally the most dangerous guy in the UFC if you look at the stats. When you put him in with a guy of my size who has the credentials at this stage in his career, I think Jon's a smart guy, and he realizes that. So he wants compensating financially for it."
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - JULY 27: Tom Aspinall of England reacts after his knockout victory against ... More Curtis Blaydes in the interim UFC heavyweight championship bout during the UFC 304 event at Co-op Live on July 27, 2024 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
In March, Aspinall spoke about potential progress in the Jones situtaion.
"We had a nice meal, and we talked everything through," Aspinall told Ariel Helwani,"(UFC CBO) Hunter (Campbell) has always been extremely personable and reasonable with me. I can't say what he's like with other people, I don't know, but with me and my team, he's been nothing but hospitable and fantastic. We had a fantastic meeting. Everything went amazing, and I understand my position now. I understand what the company's doing now, and you've got to stay tuned, my friend. There's some big news coming."
'I feel like we're in a good spot right now," Aspinall added. "I realize I'm a professional MMA fighter, UFC fighter, and we're doing all this media stuff lately, it's gone really well. The YouTube channel is flying, social media's flying, everything's going really, really well with that, which is good. That's really, really nice, but first and foremost, I like fighting people. That's what I like to do. If I'm not doing that, I feel a little bit — that's just what I like to do. I like to do that. That's the most important for me, and I've not been doing that over the last seven months.
'After the meeting, I'm feeling very optimistic about things. I'm in a really, really good spot with everything and my future moving forward. I think it's exciting times, man. Really exciting times.
'The break [waiting for Jones' decision], it's not a massive break, to be honest," he added. "People are saying, 'Oh, Jon Jones is holding up your career,' and stuff. It's only been seven months. It's not too bad. I don't want to say too much, but exciting stuff is in the future, for sure.'
MONTREAL, QUEBEC - MAY 09: UFC CEO Dana White waves to the crowd during the UFC 315 ceremonial ... More weigh-in at Bell Centre on May 09, 2025 in Montreal, Quebec. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC)
In late April, UFC CEO Dana White addressed rumors about the Jones vs. Aspinall fight.
'Everything you hear is (expletive) until we (the UFC) say it,' White said of all the talk about Jones vs. Aspinall. 'I've said it many times, that's the fight we want to make this year.'
White then added that he remains 'super confident' that Jones and Aspinall will meet in 2025 before adding, 'I've said since day one, this will be the biggest heavyweight in the history of the company and in the history of the sport. It's going to be a big one.'
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