Tom Aspinall is excited about the idea of fighting Jon Jones.
Following his victory over Sergei Pavlovic in the co-main event of UFC 295 on Saturday, Aspinall now holds the interim heavyweight title in Jon Jones’ absence. Jones was originally set to fight Stipe Miocic at UFC 295, but he had to withdraw due to injury, leading to the replacement bout between Aspinall and Pavlovic.
A fight between Aspinall and Jones would make perfect sense, but both Jones and Miocic have expressed their desire to face each other next. Aspinall hopes that his first-round knockout of Pavlovic will convince the UFC to consider alternative plans.
During the postgame press conference, Aspinall stated, “Right now I’m just going to enjoy tonight. But I think we should have Tom Aspinall vs. Jon Jones in Manchester. It would be special and I’m sure the UFC would be supportive of that. It would be special.”
When asked about the possibility of the match taking place at London’s Wembley Stadium instead, Aspinall responded, “That’s just unbelievable. It doesn’t have to be Manchester, but it would be absolutely insane to have the greatest fighter of all time and the UFC’s British heavyweight champion face off in England. Let’s do it, absolutely.”
Aspinall’s title win marked the culmination of a remarkable comeback campaign that began in July, when he defeated Marcin Tybura in just 73 seconds after returning from a knee injury. He followed up on that performance with a victory over Pavlovic, finishing the hard-hitting Russian in just 69 seconds. His UFC record currently stands at 7-1, with all of his wins coming by knockout or submission.
Ideally, Aspinall doesn’t want to wait another year for Jones to return from injury and settle the fight with Miocic, but he expressed that fighting Jones remains his primary goal. He hopes that his performance at UFC 295 can convince Jones to delay his retirement for at least one more fight.
“Why can’t we do that?” Aspinall questioned. “I don’t think it’s my fault that he told me, ‘It’s an easy game.’ I think if I hit someone right in the face, they’d go to sleep, it’s that simple. John. I know that, and that’s no disrespect to John, I love John dearly, he’s one of my favorite fighters of all time, I absolutely respect him. But I want to fight him and I think I can win.”
Jones certainly took notice of Aspinall’s recent win, praising Aspinall on Twitter shortly after.
Congratulations to Tom on winning the interim heavyweight championship belt! What a great performance!
— BONY (@JonnyBones) November 12, 2023
“Tom, congratulations on winning the interim heavyweight championship belt,” Jones wrote. “It was a great performance.”
This comment caught Aspinall’s attention during the post-event scrum, and he was further encouraged to call for a fight against one of his idols.
“I’ve also seen John say nice things about me on his podcast, which is really great,” Aspinall said. “Of course, it’s always nice to hear good things about you, but even more so from someone like that, whom I have so much respect for.”
“Thank you, John, and give me the chance. Let me do it. Give me the fight of my dreams. Why not? I’ve just achieved my dream. Give me the fight of my dreams. , let me fight for my legacy now.”
Former interim champion Cyril Gane was also quick to congratulate Aspinall via social media, but he went further to criticize Aspinall.
Congratulations, Tom.
You will be the champion and the chased, and I will be the hunter.see you soon
— Cyryl Gan (@ciryl_gan) November 12, 2023
This is a matchup that Aspinall has previously expressed interest in. Now that he holds the gold medal, he has a different idea of who Gane should fight.
“It’s interesting that I called him and went to France and he turned down the fight,” Aspinall said. “I think he should fight. [Jailton] Almeida. I think they should fight each other first and see what happens there.”
