Tom Aspinall calls idea of Jon Jones fight at White House 'false hope,' not interested
Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) never got his long-desired title unification bout after Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) opted to retire and relinquish his belt. As a result, Aspinall was promoted from interim champ to undisputed champ.
Aspinall has moved on and is booked to defend his title against Ciryl Gane (13-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in the UFC 321 headliner on Oct. 25 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. However, with Jones coming out of retirement in hopes of competing on next year's White House event, the idea of them fighting is still alive – but not for Aspinall.
"It's just so boring," Aspinall said on "The Ariel Helwani Show" of Jones possibly coming out of retirement. "I don't even have a comment on it. It's boring as hell, don't want to talk about it. I've already got a fight, so I'm focusing on that. I micro-manage things so well mentally. For the next 10 weeks of my life, all I'm thinking of is Ciryl Gane and how to beat him. ... It has spent zero seconds in my mind. I'm not interested, and the world shouldn't be interested either, because what's the point? It's false hope.
"It doesn't not interest me, but it doesn't really interest me. It would be a cool experience, but I feel like the Americans should get the shot at the White House. I'm not American. Trump and the political stance in America doesn't really bother me at all. I'm not a big Trump supporter, or I'm not against him. I don't know anything about American politics. I'm not American, I don't live there, I don't reside there, I don't do anything there apart from pay taxes and fight there. So all of that stuff just is irrelevant to me."
UFC CEO Dana White himself is hesitant to put Jones on the White House card, which left the former two-division champion a little disappointed.
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Valentina Shevchenko 3. Kayla Harrison 4. Cris Cyborg 5. Virna Jandiroba 6. Natalia Silva 7. Dakota Ditcheva 8. Larissa Pacheco 9. Jasmine Jasudavicius 10. Manon Fiorot CHUCK MINDENHALL MEN 1. Islam Makhachev 2. Ilia Topuria 3. Merab Dvalishvili 4. Alexandre Pantoja 5. Khamzat Chimaev 6. Tom Aspinall 7. Magomed Ankalaev 8. Alexander Volkanovski 9. Jack Della Maddalena 10. Dricus du Plessis WOMEN 1. Kayla Harrison 2. Zhang Weili 3. Valentina Shevchenko 4. Cris Cyborg 5. Dakota Ditcheva 6. Manon Fiorot 7. Virna Jandiroba 8. Natalia Silva 9. Jasmine Jasudavicius 10. Liz Carmouche DRAKE RIGGS MEN 1. Ilia Topuria 2. Islam Makhachev 3. Alexandre Pantoja 4. Merab Dvalishvili 5. Khamzat Chimaev 6. Tom Aspinall 7. Magomed Ankalaev 8. Jack Della Maddalena 9. Alexander Volkanovski 10. Alex Pereira WOMEN 1. Zhang Weili 2. Seika Izawa 3. Valentina Shevchenko 4. Cris Cyborg 5. Kayla Harrison 6. Natalia Silva 7. Virna Jandiroba 8. Liz Carmouche 9. Dakota Ditcheva 10. Larissa Pacheco
