Aspinall Wants To Fight For The Heavyweight Title Next
The UFC interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall wants to fight for the heavyweight title next.
Aspinall has his eyes on the current heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, who won the vacant belt after stopping Ciryl Gane in a first-round submission at UFC 285. A title defense against Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 failed. Bones injured his pectoral muscle in training, forcing him to withdraw. Jones has undergone surgery with the hope of returning in 2024. Aspinall demanded that the UFC strip Jones and make a title fight between himself and Miocic.
Aspinall On Jones
“I think that Stipe and Jones is an absolutely amazing match up. But in my opinion, that was an amazing matchup for this past weekend, and I feel like the shine of that fight has kind of gone. I don’t know how anybody else feels about that, but I feel like now, they need to make either me and John Jones, or me and Stipe, because what’s kind of the point in the other stuff?
“Let’s move forward, let me fight one of the legends now, and let me move forward with my career, as opposed to doing this other stuff and wait around.[Jones vs. Miocic] was amazing. That’s an amazing match up. But I don’t want to see that, and I don’t think anyone else wants to see that in a year’s time. Let’s move on from that now, and let me fight one of the legends and beat the legends,” Aspinall said
White On Aspinall
Dana White shut down those suggestions, leaving Aspinall to wait on the sideline for either the winner of Jones vs. Miocic or to defend his interim little, leaving him frustrated.
“The Stipe fight has to happen. You know, both of those guys deserve it. Jon – you’ve got the greatest mixed martial artist of all time versus the greatest heavyweight of all time. And they’ve paid their dues. They’ve done the thing. These two wanna fight each other. It’s going to happen. Whoever wins, we’ll see what they decide to do after that, and we’ll go from there,” White stated
Aspinall’s Future
Aspinall also questioned whether Miocic was deserving of a title shot. He has not fought since 2021, when Francis Ngannou knocked him out. Miocic is 41 years old, and the narrative heading into the Jones fight was that the winner would retire. Aspinall is in the prime of his career. After suffering a serious knee injury against Curtis Blaydes, he stopped Marcin Tybura and Sergei Pavlovich with first-round knockouts.
Aspinall may be in excellent form, but it is important to bear in mind the following point. Miocic ultimately did nothing to hinder the fight since Jones ended up being injured. At 41, Miocic may be looking for that one last major fight before he walks away from the sport. If Aspinall can keep himself healthy and continue to win, it is only a matter of time before he gets his title shot.
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