Dana White: UFC will ‘move on quickly’ if Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall isn’t finalized in the next couple of weeks
The drawn-out saga between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall may finally come to an end soon.
The highly anticipated fight pitting champion against champion has been talked about for months, but there’s seemingly been no real movement on actually securing an agreement for Jones to face Aspinall sometime in 2025. Jones, who holds the UFC heavyweight title, has hinted at both retirement and possibly returning to compete again, while Aspinall, as the interim champion, has been anxiously awaiting his next assignment after his last fight back in July 2024, when he knocked out Curtis Blaydes in the first round.
Now, UFC CEO Dana White says he expects to know for certain if Jones vs. Aspinall is happening or not very soon, and if the matchup fails to materialize, he’s ready to move the division forward in rapid-fire fashion.
“I don’t know, we’ll see how this thing plays out over the next couple weeks,” White told Jim Rome regarding Jones vs. Aspinall. “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.”
While awaiting word on whether or not he’ll get to face Jones next, Aspinall went as far as saying the former light heavyweight champion was retired and he was looking forward to his next challenge as undisputed champion.
His frustration has continued to boil over as Aspinall waits on word about his future while still holding out hope that the UFC can book him against Jones.
For his part, Jones claimed that he and Aspinall agreed to let the UFC make any announcements regarding the proposed fight between them, but he hasn’t said if a deal is imminent or if he’s potentially contemplating retirement instead.
One thing for certain: Jones isn’t running scared from Aspinall.
“Listen, Jon Jones has been an interesting human being to deal with since the day he got here,” White said. “But I will say this about him, you would never hear me out talking about he’s the GOAT and he’s this and he’s that if Jon Jones didn’t want to fight people. 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.
“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 ever cancelled, had to cancel a show because of [this] — but 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.”
The incident involving Jones and the fight cancellation took place all the way back in 2012 when he was scheduled to defend his light heavyweight title against Dan Henderson. Unfortunately, Henderson suffered an injury, and the UFC attempted to replace him with Sonnen.
Jones ultimately passed on the fight, and without the ability to find an adequate replacement for the main event, the UFC cancelled the show.
It remains to be seen if Jones is going to ultimately pass on facing Aspinall, but White seems confident he’ll have an answer soon on what could potentially go down as the biggest heavyweight fight in UFC history.