Tom Aspinall breaks UFC record while waiting for Jon Jones fight
Tom Aspinall is still waiting to fight Jon Jones for the UFC heavyweight title. The long wait hasn’t stopped him from making UFC history.
Jones is currently the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion. He claimed the vacant belt in 2023, soon after Francis Ngannou vacated the title, with a quick submission of Ciryl Gane. Unfortunately, Jones has been incredibly choosy with his fights since then. He has fought just once since winning the title, battering a shopworn Stipe Miocic to a third-round TKO win last fall.
The fight with Miocic was the source of a lot of controversy for Jones and the UFC. That’s because Aspinall is the promotion’s interim heavyweight champion, which should mean that he gets a shot at the undisputed belt before anybody else — even a legend like Miocic. Instead, Aspinall was forced to defend his interim belt against Curtis Blaydes last summer — just months before Jones fought Miocic. Considering interim belts are intended to keep a division moving while the undisputed champ is away, it was all quite farcical, but to borrow a popular MMA adage, it is what it is.
The silver lining for Aspinall is that he has made some history while waiting around for Jones. Having won his interim title with a first-round knockout or Sergei Pavlovich way back in November of 2023, he has now surpassed Renan Barao’s interim title reign at bantamweight to become the longest-reigning interim champ in UFC history.
MMA Fighting reporter Jed Meshew was first to point out Aspinall’s new record.
Tom Aspinall is now the longest reigning interim champion in UFC history, surpassing Renan Barao
Tom Aspinall: 535 days
Renan Barão: 534 days(h/t @JedKMeshew) #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/LU0qYHP9fY
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) April 29, 2025
Will Tom Aspinall and Jon Jones ever fight?
While Tom Aspinall is still holding out hope for a fight with Jones, it’s looking more and more unlikely. In fact, prominent MMA analyst Din Thomas believes Aspinall will most likely fight again at UFC 317 this summer — and probably not against Jones.
“Tom’s going to have to defend [the interim belt],” Thomas told MMA Junkie, speaking of Aspinall’s goal of fighting again this summer. “There’s no way Jon Jones accepts that fight [this summer]. He says he needs more time to prepare. It’s not like he didn’t know about this for the last two years. … The more and more time that passes, the more and more I think Jon is just pulling us along and may not ever take this fight.”
“If I had to put my money on it, I think they convince Tom Aspinall to fight Ciryl Gane,” he added. “We’re two months out [from UFC 317], and I think they’ll throw a number. Tom wants to fight and he’ll be like, ‘All right, I’ll fight.’ Then they’ll throw a number at Ciryl Gane. It won’t be ideal for him, but they’ll throw a number he can’t refuse and he’ll have to take it, and I think it makes more sense that way.”
What do you think is next for Aspinall?
This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM
Topics:
Jon Jones Tom Aspinall UFC
