Tom Aspinall made it clear during his long layoff that his goal was always becoming undisputed UFC heavyweight champion whether or not that led him to a fight against Jon Jones.
Following Jones’ retirement — that apparently lasted all of two weeks — Aspinall traveled to Las Vegas where he spoke to UFC officials about what comes next for him. He admits looking down the roster at the list of potential opponents that Jones was obviously the biggest and most important fight available to him but he expects things in the division to start shaking up again with his plans to remain a very active champion.
“The heavyweight division’s not exactly on fire at the moment,” Aspinall told Adam Catterall after returning home to England. “From a name point of view. I think the talent’s there. But if you look five plus years ago, just the name value in the top 15 was incredible. We’re talking guys like Fabricio Werdum, Cain Velasquez, [Junior dos Santos], Mark Hunt, Alistair Overeem, Brock Lesnar, etc, etc. Stipe [Miocic], the list goes on and on. You look through the top 15 and it’s like wow, that’s incredible. Where as now, even me who’s a heavyweight, I look through the top 15 and I’m like I’ve not really seen [these guys] fight before.
“I think over the next few years that’s going to change. I think there’s going to be more big fights at heavyweight. People are going to become bigger names, which is great. We just need more up and coming heavyweights doing a bit in the top 15.”
The good news is Aspinall expects that he’ll return to action sooner than later now that the UFC has offered him a fight that he already accepted.
“I now have a fight, which will get announced, unfortunately that’s not my job,” Aspinall revealed. “But at least we’ve got a date, we’ve got an opponent to work towards. Everything’s good. Very happy with that. I can finally get my career going again.”
Given the UFC calendar for the rest of 2025, Aspinall is likely looking at a return to action in October, November or December depending on where the promotion slots him in. The October pay-per-view is set for Abu Dhabi with the UFC expected to travel to New York for an event at Madison Square Garden in November.
The final big show happens in December with all signs pointing towards a homecoming in Las Vegas as the UFC closes out the year.
Aspinall didn’t mention any dates, locations or opponents, although he did address a couple of potential matchups with former interim champion Ciryl Gane likely sitting at the top of the list.
“We’ve been supposed to fight each other a couple of times before,” Aspinall said about fighting Gane. “He’s a little bit older and at least he started his career in the UFC a little bit earlier than I did. So when I was in, it was always like I was trying to fight him because he was just a little bit above me all the time.
“Fight never materialized. He turned me down a couple of times, to be honest. I don’t think he wanted to fight down the rankings. I don’t know. I get it. I’m a bad fight for everybody. It’s a risky fight for everybody. So I understand why you wouldn’t want to fight down the rankings as well but I’m sure that fight’s going to happen sooner or later.”
Aspinall also addressed Jailton Almeida, who has been rather vocal in calling for a heavyweight title shot.
“I like it,” Aspinall said about the Brazilian. “I think he’s good. Took a loss to [Curtis] Blaydes but he looks good. There’s not a lot of good heavyweights around. He looks decent.”
Another potential name for the future is Russian heavyweight Alexander Volkov, who Aspinall defeated via armbar submission back in 2022. Since then, Volkov has gone 4-1 with his only loss coming in a close, somewhat controversial split decision to Gane this past December.
While it doesn’t sound like Aspinall is rushing towards any rematches right now, he definitely sees Volkov as a future opponent in the future.
“I actually thought [Volkov] won the Gane fight as well. To be honest,” Aspinall said. “Just but I think he won it. To be honest, I knew how good Volkov was when I fight him. He’s really good. He is really, really good. I think he has improved since then. I think we probably will rematch at some point. I would imagine so. I wasn’t very good then in comparison to what I’m like now.
“So if we do rematch, that would be interesting. Don’t get me wrong, there’s never any two fights that are the same but I think if you compare now to comparing me to three or four years ago, whenever that fight was, you’ve got to remember that was my first main event as well. That was my first time fighting in front of a crowd as well. That was after the pandemic. Way, way different now than it was then. I think that fight will happen again, I would imagine. I think Volkov’s going to keep winning. I think that fight will happen at some point for sure.”
No matter the opponent, Aspinall is just excited to get back to work after a frustrating year off but he definitely sees new challenges awaiting him now that he’s the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion.
“There’s a few guys I’ve not fought,” Aspinall said. “I won’t mention any names because they’ll just cut it up and post it but the guys that I’ve not fought know who they are and they’re the guys that I want to fight.”
