Tom Aspinall is officially sick of sitting around and waiting for Jon Jones.
Aspinall now holds the dubious record of longest serving interim champion in UFC history. He won the interim heavyweight title back in November 2023 and defended it in July 2024. With Jones now in Thailand filming a Russian reality show, it’s safe to say the two won’t be fighting in the next two to three months. That leaves Tom in a tough position where he may have to defend his interim belt more times than most heavyweight champions have managed to defend the actual belt.
“Me, personally, I can’t do anything,” Aspinall told the High Performance podcast regarding getting the Jones fight locked in. “I think it’s just down to money, I think, on his side. So I will fight whenever, wherever he wants. But it’s down to money, I think.”
“I just think that at this stage in his career, he’s had an amazing career,” he continued. “He’s like 37, 38 years old, but not only that, he’s got a million miles on the clock. So he’s got a lot of damage on the body. He’s took a lot of shots to the head, and that’s not me saying anything negative about it. That’s the reality of it. And I’m sure Jon Jones is aware of that.”
“When you put him in with, I’m not trying to blow my own trumpet, but I’m literally the most dangerous guy in the UFC if you look at the stats. When you put him in with a guy of my size who has the credentials at this stage in his career, I think Jon’s a smart guy, and he realizes that. So he wants compensating financially for it.”
This podcast was recorded back when the UFC came to London in mid-March, but even then Aspinall sounded over the waiting game.
Tom Aspinall calls Jon Jones the closest thing to perfection and believes he can still beat him
“Jon is amazing at MMA. No one’s ever gonna be a perfect, complete fighter, but Jon, in my opinion, if you look at his body of work in the last 15 years, he’s as close as you can… pic.twitter.com/dpEGjhhYr5
— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) May 12, 2025
“I’m well bored of it. I’ve had enough,” he said. “Either we need to fight or I need to move on and do something else. And like I said, I’m gonna find out. Literally today is the day that I’ve been waiting three, four months for, and I’m gonna find out today what’s going on.”
Following UFC London in March, rumors started to swirl that Aspinall might defend his interim belt against Ciryl Gane. Nothing has been announced, but with Jones off in Thailand doing who knows what for the next month, we certainly don’t think it’s a Jon vs. Tom fight that’s on deck.
