So far, Tom Aspinall has drawn a blank in his pursuit of UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Britain’s Aspinall, who won the interim heavyweight title last year, has been vocally campaigning for a shot at Jones ever since but has been met with resistance — not least from Jones and Dana White, who have both steadfastly stuck to plans for a heavyweight title bout against former champion Stipe Miocic, a fighter without a win in the UFC in four years.
And while Aspinall has stated that his next fight will be for undisputed gold, it has also been speculated that one of both of Jones and Miocic may opt to retire after their proposed fight.
But speaking to the media in Las Vegas earlier this week, White says he doesn’t envisage a scenario where Jones wouldn’t want to test himself against Aspinall should he be successful against Miocic.
“Dislike him, whatever your beef is with Jon Jones, knock yourself out,” White said. “There’s no way in hell that Jon Jones doesn’t want to fight Aspinall. That I guarantee you.”
He added: “Jon Jones is doing Jon Jones right now,” White said. “That’s what he does. There is nobody that we’ve ever dealt with, when I tell you is not afraid to fight anybody. It’s Jon Jones… I believe Jon Jones-Aspinall happens if he beats Stipe.”
“We’ll do everything we can to make that fight happen. What fights don’t we make? Other than the Francis [Ngannou] thing, what fights don’t we make? You can’t make people fight and we couldn’t make Francis fight. But every other fight we’ve made. We’ve dealt with guys like Brock Lesnar. Think of the biggest stars that have ever been in the sport. We’ve always made the fights.”
