Tom Aspinall traveled to London this past weekend for the UFC’s latest Fight Night event. While there as a guest fighter, the reigning interim heavyweight champion also met with the brass and discussed his immediate future.
Aspinall, 31, has been sidelined since his successful 60-second interim title defense against Curtis Blaydes in July at UFC 304. The division’s champion Jon Jones also defended his belt with a third-round stoppage of Stipe Miocic in November. So, will the long-awaited champion vs. champion bout actually happen? As expected, the potential matchup was the centerpiece of Aspinall’s meeting with UFC executives.
“We had a nice meal, and we talked everything through,” Aspinall said Monday on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “[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.”
Movement on the Jones vs. Aspinall front has been relatively quiet since Jones finally received his wish of a Miocic clash to close out 2024. Regardless, UFC CEO Dana White has maintained confidence in the bout coming to fruition. This past week, White told TNT Sports that the much-discussed heavyweight title unification is “done but it’s not done” and “just a matter of when now” in regards to final negotiations.
Aspinall appeared relatively frustrated prior to the meeting with Campbell, revealing on his YouTube channel that the reason for his inactivity has everything to do with Jones’ side. Sources within Aspinall’s camp also expressed frustration to Uncrowned in February at the lack of movement with negotiations and indicated that hopes for the Jones fight had begun dwindling within the camp around that time.
Now, however, Aspinall is “feeling very optimistic” after his latest meeting with UFC brass.
“I feel like we’re in a good spot right now,” Aspinall said. “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.”
Aspinall has only fought for a collective three minutes and 37 seconds in his past four fights. In April, Aspinall will break a regrettable UFC record as the longest-reigning interim champion in promotional history, surpassing former bantamweight interim champ Renan Barao. The difference between the two is that Barao’s champion counterpart at the time, Dominick Cruz, was sidelined with injuries for years.
Aspinall has made it clear both publicly and privately to the UFC that his days of interim title defenses are behind him. It’s undisputed gold or bust. He’s unsure when his time will come in 2025, but he’s ready to go right now if the UFC allows him.
“I could fight next week, and I think this is what people don’t really understand — is like, I have not been out there doing anything else apart from training,” Aspinall said. “That’s all I do. Train, get fit, improving in the gym and stuff like that. But, of course, I want to fight. Of course I do. But it’s got to be right, and as I’ve said multiple times, what I deserve is the undisputed heavyweight title. That’s very important to me. Money and everything aside, that’s really secondary. What I want is to be undisputed heavyweight champion.
“I’m working toward it, man. I’m not sat at home scratching my ass and watching TV all day. I am getting involved in the gym every day, and I’m in a really, really good spot with the training and stuff because we set up a training room where elite heavyweights are traveling to me from all over the world to train, and these guys are in camp. These guys got fights coming up soon. I’m just jumping in and getting involved with them, training at the intensity that I would do if I was training for a world title fight myself. So I’m in a good spot, man. I’m in a really, really good spot.
“I’d rather fight sooner rather than later, but I’m also the type of guy that believes everything happens for me,” he concluded. “So I’m sure when the time comes, it’s going to be the right time — and all good, I’m excited.”
There initially appeared to be a two-man race for Jones’ next fight, as Jones was vocal both before and after his battle with Miocic about his interest in fighting Alex Pereira over Aspinall. However, Pereira dropped his light heavyweight title to Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313 earlier this month.
Jones’ big caveat after his Miocic win was that he needed “F*** you money” to fight Aspinall, otherwise a champion vs. champion Pereira fight was his target. While Pereira now feels like an afterthought to Aspinall, he still hopes to see Jones get paid what he’s asking for — especially if it helps secure their potential fight.
“I would never celebrate anyone who lost,” Aspinall said of Pereira’s loss. “That just really isn’t my style, but it definitely helps [my situation], for sure.
“There’s not really many places for [Jones] to go right now, I don’t think. I think the UFC made it clear, anyway. I would like to keep faith that Dana and the UFC would keep their word that if Jon Jones is fighting again that it’s going to be against me. But now that the Pereira fight has been taken away with his loss and stuff, I think that kind of goes without saying anyway at this point.
“I would also agree with the notion that [Jones] deserves every penny that he makes because he’s done everything that he can,” he concluded.
