UFC interim champion Tom Aspinall wonders if he’s already notched his first official title defense.
Aspinall is just over a month away from surpassing Renan Barao’s record of holding the interim title at 535 days. Aspinall claimed the interim belt with a knockout of Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 in November 2023, and has since defended it with a first-round TKO of Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in July.
Chomping on the bit to get his title-unification bout with UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC), Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) will meet with company brass in London this week to hunt answers.
“I don’t know. You see, it gets a bit complicated with that because to be the most effective heavyweight ever, you simply need three title defenses, and do I actually have one or not?” Aspinall told The Schmo. “I don’t know. I’m unsure. But I feel I must have one since it was a legit title defense, but it surely was for an interim title, and it becomes a bit weird. So these are the questions I’m going to be asking the UFC.”
After ending Stipe Miocic at UFC 309, Jones said he would wish “f*ck you” money to think about facing Aspinall over Alex Pereira. But after Pereira lost his light heavyweight title to Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313, Aspinall says Jones now has no other alternative but to fight him.
“I’m an Alex Pereira fan. I really like his style. I really like the run he has been on,” Aspinall said in a one-on-one interview with Adam Catterall. “I actually respect where he’s come from and every thing like that, but it surely couldn’t have happened at a greater time for me, personally.
“There’s nowhere to go for Johnny. He either has to fight me or retire now. If he does retire, everyone knows that he could have been avoiding me. Literally, there isn’t one other fight for Jon for the time being, so it really works out pretty good.”
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