Interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall expects his next opponent to be announced soon but it doesn’t seem likely that it’ll be undisputed heavyweight titleholder Jon Jones.
Aspinall has been calling for a title unification bout since being crowned interim champion in November 2023. UFC CEO Dana White was confident that UFC matchmakers could get the fight booked, but Jones hasn’t been receptive to facing Aspinall.
Former UFC women’s bantamweight titleholder Miesha Tate believes Jones ‘is ducking’ Aspinall because he’s not confident he can win.
“I feel like Jon Jones is ducking Tom Aspinall,” Tate told ESportsInsider. “I think Jon Jones is an incredibly smart man, and he is a technician, and he knows when he sees someone that would be difficult to beat. And I think he isn’t confident that he has the pieces that it takes to put Tom Aspinall on the mat.”
Admittedly, Tate hasn’t followed the Jones and Aspinall situation very closely but from what she’s seen and read, she doesn’t understand why Jones hasn’t accept the match.
“Granted, I haven’t followed this religiously, but I’ve seen Jon Jones in an interview and saying, “Oh, Tom Aspinall is talking all this crap”, and I think it was Ariel Helwani that was covering it, and I was like, what has Tom Aspinall said? I mean, he doesn’t even use curse words,” Tate said.
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“He’s pretty much just called him out or said like, oh, he’s ducking me and I don’t know from beyond that if there’s something has changed, but it seems like Aspinall’s been pretty respectful. And even if someone’s not respectful, that’s still not a reason to not fight someone, right?”
Tate believes it’s the champion’s job to prove that they’re the best in the world and if they aren’t interested in fighting then that’s okay but the heavyweight division is at a stand still.
“If Tom’s been respectful or has been disrespectful, it doesn’t matter. Your job is to prove that you’re the best, and you’re supposed to move up to heavyweight and do that,” said Tate. “I don’t understand what all this hemming and hawing is about. Tom Aspinall is where it’s at right now, and I think that he should show up if he wants to or call it. Like if he doesn’t wanna fight anymore, then don’t. That’s okay too.”
