Tom Aspinall accuses Jon Jones of "playing games" about next heavyweight title defense
Tom Aspinall took a dig at Jon Jones for playing mind games about his next heavyweight title defense. Aspinall has been repeatedly calling out Jones for quite some time now.
The current heavyweight champion of the UFC was supposed to defend his title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 in November last year. Nevertheless, Jones' injured pectoral muscle prompted him to withdraw from the fight.
As a result, Aspinall came into the picture to challenge the original backup, Sergei Pavlovich, for the vacant heavyweight title on short notice. The British fighter secured the interim title after knocking out Pavlovich less than a minute into the first round.
Following his victory, Aspinall pushed for a fight to unify the titles with Jones. But 'Bones' turned down the request and said he would like to reschedule his fight with Miocic.
In a recent interview with TNT Sports, Aspinall shared his thoughts on an undisputed title fight against Jones:
''If we can get old mate Jon to ever sign a contract with my name on the other side of the contract, I’ll talk about him for hours on this show. But right now, the guy is playing games again. Trying to convince the public what he wants and what he doesn’t want. Which he does really, really well. As I said, we can chat about Jon, if and when he ever signs a contract with my name on the other side of it. Because right now, let’s be honest, it’s not looking very likely.”
Check out Tom Aspinall's comments below (46:13):
Aspinall is scheduled to return to the octagon at UFC 304. The pay-per-view event is set to take place on July 27 at Co-op Live in Manchester. The interim heavyweight champion would most likely defend his belt against another heavyweight contender rather than biding his time until Jones returned.
Tom Aspinall responds to Jon Jones' proposal to fight Alex Pereira
Since his comeback from injury in 2022, Tom Aspinall has been chasing a fight against Jon Jones. But the UFC interim heavyweight champion was disappointed when 'Bones' expressed his desire to face Alex Pereira.
During a fan interaction, the UFC heavyweight champion expressed interest in a bigger fight with Pereira, especially after the Brazilian's victory at UFC 300. As expected, this prompted a response from Aspinall, who was probably annoyed by Jones' previous actions.
Check out Tom Aspinall's response below: