UFC CEO Dana White will either have an announcement regarding a title unification bout between heavyweight champion Jon Jones and interim titleholder Tom Aspinall in the ‘next couple of weeks.’ If the fight promotion is unable to finalized the bout, they’re ready to ‘move on quickly.’
“Jon Jones has been an interesting human being to deal with since the day he got here,” White said during an appearance on “The Jim Rome Show.” “But I will say this about him: you would never hear me out talking about he’s the GOAT, he’s the this and he’s the that, if Jon Jones didn’t want to fight people.”
Jones has publicly shown little interest in facing Aspinall but White recently stated that Jones had, at least initially, agreed to face the interim champion.
Jones has been in Thailand filming a Russian version of The Ultimate Fighter potentially causing a delay in booking his next fight. Whatever the reason for the champion vs. champion match hasn’t been finalized has nothing to do with Jones scared to face Aspinall.
“Jon Jones has never, ever said, ‘I’m afraid to fight this guy,’ or ‘I don’t like this fight for me,’ or any of that stuff,” White said. “One time, his coach at the time, back in the day – I don’t know if he’s still with him or whatever. I think it’s the only fight we’ve ever canceled. I had to cancel a show because he wouldn’t fight Chael Sonnen, because his coach thought it was a bad idea to take that fight on late notice, but it had nothing to do with Jon Jones.
“Jon Jones has never turned down an opponent here or been afraid to fight anybody.”
Related: Wife shares update on Ben Askren: ‘Starting the evaluation process for lung transplant’
In 2012, Jones was scheduled to take on Dan Henderson in the UFC 151 main event but Henderson was forced out of the fight with an injury. The fight promotion tried to book Sonnen as a last-minute replacement but Jones’s camp turned the fight down and the event was subsequently canceled.
Jones was last in action at UFC 309 in November, defeating former two-time titleholder Stipe Miocic. Aspinall last fought at UFC 304 in July 2024 defeating Curtis Blaydes in a rarely ever seen interim title defense. White expects to have an announcement on Jones and Aspinall in a ‘couple of weeks.’
“We’ll see how this thing plays out over the next couple of weeks,” White said. “If we can’t get this fight done, we’ll move on quickly. I said a couple of weeks. We’ll have answers in the next couple weeks.”
