The Brit has seemingly given up on a fight with the undisputed heavyweight champion and is now hoping to stay active inside the cage this year
Tom Aspinall has his sights set on a busy end to the year and has expressed his frustration over the delay in securing a fight with Jon Jones.
The interim heavyweight champion has been out of action since his win over Curtis Blaydes last July and is eager to get back in the octagon. Despite a challenging year waiting for Jones – who secured the undisputed title by submitting Ciryl Gane in 2023 and defended it against Stipe Miocic last November – Aspinall is ready to move on.
Jones has teased staying on for another fight, but Aspinall suspects he’s hung up his gloves and is eyeing other opportunities. The Wigan warrior told TNT Sports: “I’m sick of talking about myself, I mean, I think it’s pretty clear to see that Jon Jones has retired, he doesn’t want to fight me. We wish Jon all the best in the future, of course, but we want this heavyweight division active.
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“We want to give these contenders a chance to fight, we wanna have a defending champion, don’t we? Why is this division so stagnant all the time? Let’s make the heavyweight division great again and have an active defending UFC heavyweight champion, let’s move on. I’m ready to fight, I wanna get two fights in before the end of the year so that’s what we’re doing. We finally have some movement, Jones has had a great career, I respect him, we know what he’s done… Have a good life, we move on.”
It seems as if Aspinall has fully moved on after stating that ‘Bones’ is retired. Earlier this week, when asked about the agreement by UFC legends Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen on the Good Guy / Bad Guy podcast, the Brit said: “Nah man, Jon is retired. What are you talking about guys?
“You guys don’t follow Jon on social media? Me too [I don’t follow him]. But the guy is living his best life. He’s had a fantastic career, we all know. We know Jon’s a religious man, so I want to say God bless him moving forward in what he does in his life and his career.
“We move on. I’m the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. I’m ready to take on all comers, get this division moving again. Us guys have been waiting around too long, the contenders are getting sick of it, everybody is getting sick of it, even the fans are getting sick of this stuff. So Jon’s retired and it’s time that we move on.”
If Aspinall has in fact moved on, the UFC faces a challenging task in finding a suitable opponent for the British fighter. The most logical match-up for Aspinall at this point would be Gane – who narrowly won his last fight against Alexander Volkov in December via a split decision.
