Tom Aspinall appears to be out of luck when it comes to a potential matchup against Jon Jones.

UFC 295 took place this past November and turned the page to the next chapter of the heavyweight division. Well, sort of. That was the intention going in anyway, and the promotion tentatively mapped things out to work as such, but then the landscape got messy… for almost no reason.

The undisputed UFC heavyweight champion Jones was forced out of the event’s original main event opposite former two-time titlist Stipe Miocic after he tore his pectoral muscle in the weeks leading up to fight night. Therefore, the UFC created an interim title since Jones had already been out since March 2023. Aspinall reaped the rewards of the crown and knocked out his fellow top heavyweight Sergei Pavlovich in 69 seconds.

An interim title is typically all that’s needed to set up a guaranteed unification title tilt no matter the MMA promotion. Crazy, right? Instead, Aspinall has to wait for the UFC to rebook an eventually healthy Jones vs. the three-year absent Miocic, as both fighters and UFC CEO Dana White desire.

It doesn’t make sense, and the interim UFC heavyweight title looks like nothing more than a temporary promotional tool with its holder forced to deal with it.

“It’s quite simple, I want to fight Jones but Jones wants to fight Miocic and that’s it,” Aspinall told OLBG. “Jones is great at deflecting the truth; he’s like a politician. When I start talking about wanting to fight him he starts talking about resumes and history and the things that he’s done that’s better than me. I have no qualms whatsoever about saying that his resume is better than mine. What I say in return is — it doesn’t matter about resumes. I just want to fight him and beat him right now and he doesn’t want to do that.

“There’s not one interview, one post, one clip anywhere online where Jon Jones says he wants to fight me. I don’t know why. I don’t want to be the guy that says he’s scared to fight me because the guy had a million fights and fought millions of good people, but I know one thing for sure, he is not keen on fighting me right now.”

As excellent as Jones, 36, has been throughout his legendary 29-fight 16-year career, he’s only fought once since February 2020, which was with his heavyweight debut when he submitted Ciryl Gane via first-round guillotine. Meanwhile, the 30-year-old Aspinall’s entire UFC career has come in that stretch, seeing him win seven of his eight bouts (14-3 overall) with the lone loss coming from a 15-second ACL tear against Curtis Blaydes in July 2022. All but one of Aspinall’s UFC wins have been knockouts with that one as a first-round submission of Alexander Volkov.

The 42-year-old Miocic, on the other hand, has also only fought minimally since Aspinall’s arrival in UFC. Miocic won a unanimous decision over Daniel Cormier in their August 2020 trilogy bout before he rematched Francis Ngannou in March 2021 and lost his title by second-round knockout.

“Jon Jones is smart and he’s taking the easier fight for more money,” Aspinall said. “If the shoe was on the other foot, I’d do exactly the same thing. The guy is going to get a lot more money for fighting Stipe, probably, and it’s going be way easier of a fight as well. Jones doesn’t feel he needs to jump in with a young dangerous guy with no miles on the clock. He’d rather jump in with 40-year-old Stipe who hasn’t fought for four years. It’s obvious that’s what he’s doing, anybody with a brain would do that.

“The UFC do not want [us to fight]. I don’t know why this is happening. Money, I guess. I don’t know what’s going on. It’s completely unheard of that when you’ve got a healthy champion — and I know Jon Jones isn’t healthy at the moment, but he will become healthy — and when he returns it’s completely unheard of [to not make the fight between champions].

“It’s strange,” he continued. “People say, ‘I knew it was going to happen this way when I took the interim fight.’ I didn’t. I thought that the interim fight meant I’d get the next shot and I’m quite disappointed that I’ve been put to the side, so I’m stuck and I don’t really like it.”

Jones and Aspinall have had a few back-and-forths verbally online since the latter’s reign began. It’s become a classic love triangle … just in the form of fist-fighting. Who would have thought?

Solidifying his legacy further is the primary focus for Jones in 2024. With a win over an all-time great heavyweight — and arguably the all-time heavyweight — Miocic, he would do just that in his mind, and has reminded fans that he’s been there and done that when it comes to the young superstar challengers. However, that was mostly at light heavyweight as Jones is only one fight into his career as a heavyweight. Most believe that run won’t go on much longer than two or three fights though, especially if “Bones’” words are any indication.

“I definitely don’t have as many miles on the clock as Jon Jones,” Aspinall said. “I’m younger and I’m fresher, bigger, and faster. I’m a nightmare for Jon Jones and we both know it. But Jones is a smart guy and it’s not about putting Jon down at all, it’s actually doing the opposite, but fair play that he’s sticking to the road he wants to stick to, he’s got the UFC on board with it, which is the important thing.

“I think he will retire before he fights me. He’s already said as much. He’s a smart guy and a politician the way he deflects questions and sneakily says he’s the guy that’s going to retire and not stick around longer than he should.

“The guy is trying to give everyone a history lesson every time he speaks and I respect what he’s done so much, but we’re talking about right now, we are not talking five years ago, so will I add to his legacy?” he continued. “Probably not as much as Stipe, to be honest. I do understand his side of things but I’d wish he’d come out and say, ‘Tom, I’m not fighting you and these are the reasons why.’ The ones we’ve just talked about, but he won’t.”

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TOP STORIES

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Rivals. Israel Adesanya reacts to Dricus du Plessis beating Sean Strickland: ‘I’m still going to test that ass‘

Movers. MMA Pound-for-Pound Rankings: Dricus du Plessis, Raquel Pennington rocket up the list

Business. Dana White reveals timeline for UFC and ESPN negotiations on new TV deal to start

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VIDEO STEW

The MMA Hour.

UFC 298 Trailer.

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MORNING MUSIC

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Champ.

Hmm.

Well…

Update.

Lightweights.

StillKnocks.

Complaints.

Hard pass.

Amazing.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Jason Jackson (17-4) vs. Ray Cooper III (25-9-1); PFL vs. Bellator, Feb. 24

Tyson Pedro (10-4) vs. Vitor Petrino (10-0); UFC Vegas 87, March 2

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FINAL THOUGHTS

I mean, Tom has just been on point throughout this entire saga. Their matchup will be just another at heavyweight that escaped us as fans.

Thanks for reading!

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EXIT POLL

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