Interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall is losing hope of a fight with undisputed champion Jon Jones, who has been noncommittal about the matchup and recently stated he’d prefer to fight light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
Tom Aspinall’s hope is dwindling. He’s starting to think he might never get in the ring with Jon Jones.
In November, Aspinall scored a knockout against Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295. This win earned him the interim heavyweight title. Usually, this would mean a guaranteed shot at the undisputed champ. But there’s a hitch. That champ is Jon Jones.
Jones is on the mend from an injury. When he’s back in fighting shape, he’ll be defending his title against ex-champ Stipe Miocic. Oddly enough, Miocic hasn’t fought in three years and hasn’t won a match in four. Aspinall, naturally, would love to take on the winner. But Jones isn’t exactly jumping at the chance to fight Aspinall.
Things took a turn for the worse for Aspinall last week. Jones said he’d rather fight light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira.
So, the chances of Aspinall getting a shot at the undisputed title are looking slim. He spoke about this with TNT Sports recently.
Aspinall said, “If we can get old mate Jon to ever sign a contract with my name on the other side of the contract, I’ll talk about him for hours on this show. Hours. But right now, the guy is playing games again. Trying to convince the public what he wants and what he doesn’t want. Which he does really, really well. As I said, we can chat about Jon, if and when he ever signs a contract with my name on the other side of it. Because right now, let’s be honest, it’s not looking very likely.”
Instead, Aspinall is likely to compete at UFC 304. This event is set for July 27 in Manchester, England. Aspinall thinks he’ll be there. He doesn’t have an opponent yet, but he’s ready to defend his interim belt against whoever the UFC picks.
Aspinall said, “The last I knew, it was going to get announced this weekend [at UFC 301], and obviously that’s been and gone now. Right now, I have no idea what’s going on. I wish I could come on the show, I wish I could announce on social media, I wish I could start dragging traffic that way, but right now I have no idea. I’m just getting myself prepared for that date. As far as opponents and stuff like that, I don’t know what’s going on right now.”