Written by Tom Aspinall | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
If Tom Aspinall gets his wish, he’ll face Jon Jones next in the biggest heavyweight fight in UFC history.
While that matchup has been all he’s wanted since capturing the interim heavyweight title in November 2023, the British slugger has been forced to wait while Jones settled unfinished business with Stipe Miocic. On Saturday night at UFC 309, Jones did his part with a one-sided performance before finishing Miocic with a vicious spinning back kick to the body in the third round.
As soon as the fight was over, Aspinall immediately began to contemplate a future where he shares that same octagon with Jones and he believes the UFC has the same idea.
“Well when Jon Jones was doing his speech, I was looking directly at the UFC brass, Dana [White] and Hunter [Campbell],” Aspinall said on the UFC 309 post-fight show. “Both of them turned to me at the same time and pointed at me and winked. At the same time. So to me, that says there’s something big in the pipeline.
“This is the biggest fight in the UFC. This is massive. This is potentially one of the biggest fights in MMA right now. If that doesn’t interest Jon Jones, then I don’t know what else we can do. Everybody knows that this is the fight to make. This is the fight that the people want. This is the fight the UFC wants. This is the fight that the fans want. This is the fight that has to happen now.”
While Jones addressed the possibility of facing Aspinall, he also mentioned his compensation as the biggest obstacle to whether or not he returns for another fight or settles into retirement. With a nearly unblemished record across 16 years spent with the promotion and more wins in title fights than anyone in UFC history, Jones’ legacy is cemented regardless of what happens next.
For his part, Aspinall won’t take anything away from the body of work that Jones assembled during his career, but he also knows they could do an awful lot of business together.
“I spoke to the UFC brass a little bit, I’m going to speak to them a little bit more, and in my opinion, obviously I’m a little bit biased, but I think this is the biggest heavyweight fight in UFC history,” Aspinall said. “This is what the people want to see.”
As far as what he saw in the fight at UFC 309, Aspinall wasn’t surprised by how things played out.
If anything, Aspinall was impressed with Jones’ ability to get the knockout. He also saw that Miocic looked every bit his age after not competing for nearly four years with his last appearance in the UFC coming all the way back in 2021.
“It was, as you American guys say, by design,” Aspinall said. “It was exactly like I thought. It was exactly what I thought would happen. In all honesty I wasn’t sure if Jon could finish him. I thought maybe it’s going to be a five-rounder at that kind of pace. Jon picking him off, Jon keeping his range, Jon walking him backwards, Jon mixing up the attacks between the head, the body, the legs, the spinning back kicks to the body, the wrestling, he does it all incredibly well.
“I think to beat Jon Jones, the most important thing you need is good eyes. Good reactions, quick reactions. Be able to see everything and do everything and react really quick. In all honestly, Stipe Miocic—and this is said with a load of respect—he just didn’t have that at 42 years old.”
While Aspinall has studied Jones in anticipation of a potential fight between them, he had actually never seen the reigning UFC heavyweight champion perform in person prior to Saturday night.
Aspinall believes he gained invaluable information as he prepares for what he hopes is his own opportunity to hand Jones the first legitimate loss of his Hall of Fame career.
“I definitely see openings,” Aspinall said. “Whether I can do it or not, I don’t know. From the outside looking in, I think I can.”