Jon Jones is the current UFC heavyweight champion, and Tom Aspinall holds the interim title in the same division. For quite some time, the MMA world has been asking for a clash between the two athletes. But despite much interest by MMA fans and personalities alike, no official announcement regarding the matchup has been made by the UFC yet.
MMA Analyst Weighs In on Possibility of Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall
MMA analyst Din Thomas has weighed in on the Jones vs. Aspinall matchup and explained why, according to him, the matchup might not happen soon.
Thomas made an appearance on “The Bohnfire,” a show hosted by MMA journalist Mike Bohn. During his time on the show, the 48-year-old claimed that Aspinall might end up defending his interim title against Ciryl Gane before the British fighter locks horns against “Bones.”
“If I had to put my money on it, I think they convinced Tom Aspinall to fight Ciryl Gane,” said Thomas.
Thomas then shared that Jones was possibly holding off on the fight as he wanted to collect more data on Aspinall’s fighting style and to know how the 32-year-old would react when faced with adversity.
“Jon is a chess player. Y’all think about this? He’s a very intellectual chess player, and he’s trying to collect as much information on Aspinall as possible,” claimed Thomas.
“We haven’t really seen [Aspinall] in a lot of tough spots. We don’t know how he’s gonna respond to that. I think Jon is probably waiting on that. And that’s probably what Jon is looking for with Tom Aspinall, ‘You know, give him a couple more fights, but I wanna get some information before I say yes to this.'”
Jones has defeated Gane and Stipe Miocic back-to-back in his only two heavyweight fights in the UFC.
Aspinall, on the other hand, is currently on a three-fight win streak that includes victories over Sergei Pavlovich and Curtis Blaydes. In his fight against Blaydes, the British fighter successfully defended his interim title.
So, on paper, Jones vs. Aspinall seems only logical. Yet, many in the MMA community are of the opinion that the fight might never become a reality — but UFC CEO Dana White doesn’t share the same sentiment.
During his recent appearance at a post-fight press conference, White asked not to believe the rumors and shared that he was still determined on making that matchup happen in 2025.
“Everything you hear is bulls*** until we say it,” said White.” I’ve said it many times that that’s the fight we wanna make this year… Still super-confident [that the fight would become a reality.”