UFC interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall, is tired of talking about his oft-delayed title unification bout against reigning 265-pound champion, Jon Jones, and just wants the promotion to book his fight and tell him where to show up.
Even if it means facing someone other than “Bones.”
“I’ve had enough talking about it,” Aspinall told Morson Sport. “Honestly bored of it. We’ll see what happens; yeah, we will just see. I’m ready to fight whenever they tell me. So, just let me know and I will be there.”
Jones, 37, returned from a devastating pec injury to retire Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 last November, just his second victory after transitioning to heavyweight back in early 2023. During his absence, the 31 year-old Aspinall captured the substitute strap by stopping Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295, then defended the interim title by laying waste to Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304.
During his downtime, Aspinall made a surprise appearance for WWE when the pro wrestling promotion — operating under the same TKO umbrella as UFC — made a stop in Manchester last October. Fans later speculated that Aspinall may have a future inside the squared circle after finishing up his combat sports career.
WWE superstar Cody Rhodes told The Schmo Aspinall would “fit like a glove.”
“I’m not like a WWE fanboy anymore, I haven’t watched it for a long time,” Aspinall continued. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll do it, who knows? I really like Cody and Gunther and the rest of the team, I thought everybody working there was so welcoming and nice. I enjoyed it, I would do it again. We got work to do in UFC before I start thinking about WWE or boxing.”
Aspinall was also thinking about his newfound bromance with Magomed Ankalaev, who went after Jones in the wake of his championship victory over Alex Pereira earlier this month in Las Vegas. Aspinall shamed the “uneducated fans” claiming “Poatan” got robbed by the UFC 313 judges and deconstructed Ankalaev’s performance.
“I thought it was an amazing fight, both guys did good, but I think Ankalaev was just a lot better than him on the night, that’s it,” Aspinall said. “I think Ankalaev just had him guessing a lot. I think Pereira’s level on the ground, I don’t know what level he’s at, but I think he’s still a bit wary of getting taken down. He definitely defended the takedowns well but me with an educated eye watching it, I don’t think Ankalaev was really trying to take him down that much. He definitely tried a couple of times. I think he did 10 or 11 takedown attempts but I’d say only two or three of them he went full blast. I think the rest of the time, he was trying to tire him out with the grappling standing, like the cage grappling stuff. I think Ankalaev had the perfect gameplan. He didn’t overcommit, tired him out.”
Sounds like the same gameplan Jones is using to negotiate his Aspinall fight.
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