There are signs that an Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight championship unification match will take place in the near future.
At UFC 309, contested heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones (28-1, 1 NC) defended his title against Stipe Miocic, defeating the longtime titleholder with a spinning back kick and follow-up punches. Jones expressed in his post-fight interview that he was unlikely to retire after the win, but said he had many options going forward and did not reveal the name of his next opponent. According to one of them, Tom Aspinall (15-3), he will be the next challenger for “Bones.”
Despite the exciting potential of unifying the titles, Jones wasn’t entirely sold on the effort. Instead, he suggested that light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira should step up and aim to become the UFC’s first three-division belt holder. The New Yorker once again blurted out that he will retire if he doesn’t fight “Poitan” next, but the UFC may not agree with him.
Aspinall claimed he received good news from UFC executives Dana White and Hunter Campbell shortly after UFC 309. Aspinall posted a video of himself meeting White and Campbell backstage on his YouTube channel, expressing his excitement.
“I just had a meeting with my husband.” [and] Another UFC brass, Hunter. And everything was successful. See you next time, big news coming,” he said in the video.
The interim heavyweight champion also claims he has received positive hints from UFC leaders about his next fight. In a conversation with an ESPN analyst, Aspinall said White and Hunter also pointed and winked at Jones while he talked about his future in the Octagon interview after the fight.
“I was looking directly at Dana and Hunter, the UFC executives, when Jon Jones was giving his speech,” Aspinall said. “And they both turned to me at the same time and pointed at me and winked…at the same time. So to me, that means something big is going on…this is the biggest match…this is potentially one of the biggest fights in MMA right now. And if Jon Jones isn’t interested, I don’t know what else he can do… We all know this is the fight to do. This is the fight that people want, this is the fight that the UFC wants, this is the fight that needs to happen now.”
