What started final November as a easy two-man contest over the undisputed heavyweight championship has splintered right into a quagmire involving three champions throughout two weight courses.
Certainly, UFC 309 headliner Jon Jones on Saturday was set to, finally, defend his UFC heavyweight crown towards Stipe Miocic at Madison Sq. Backyard — as was the plan a 12 months in the past, earlier than a torn pectoral muscle shelved the champion.
However that left interim champion Tom Aspinall, who gained his title on the Backyard final 12 months when the UFC created it to fill the void left by shedding Jones-Miocic, twisting within the wind to not simply discover out who holds the opposite belt however whether or not both man is focused on dealing with him subsequent.
Typically, the creation of an interim title results in a swift reserving of a unification bout to determine the one champion to rule all of them.
Not the case right here, as Aspinall stored busy with a uncommon interim title protection in July whereas Jones rehabilitated.
The Brit made it clear this week that he wouldn’t be making a second; his subsequent struggle will probably be for the undisputed crown, no matter opponent.
Large hypothesis had been that Jones, Miocic or each may decide to experience off into the sundown after Saturday, thus elevating Aspinall to undisputed standing, UFC CEO Dana White had stated.
Jones, talking with The Submit within the leadup to UFC 309, urged he could be way more intrigued to face Alex Pereira — the champion at mild heavyweight, the division Jones lorded over for the overwhelming majority of his illustrious however controversial profession — than Aspinall.
White on Friday assured Jones he may have his dessert … so long as he takes his drugs.
“If he beats Tom Aspinall, then yes, I would do the Alex Pereira fight,” White stated throughout an look on “The Pat McAfee Show,” with the unsaid caveat being Jones first defeats Miocic, who arrived in New York this week as the previous two-time heavyweight champion.
The UFC figurehead has been a dogged proponent of Jones as his promotion’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter and, all year long, has adamantly defended conserving Jones-Miocic collectively as an alternative of pivoting to Jones-Aspinall.
That’s to not be mistaken for having too smooth a spot for the gifted fighter who’s clashed a number of occasions with the promotion and located himself in each authorized and regulatory hassle since his preliminary rise as mild heavyweight champion 13 years in the past.
On the finish of the day, the four-man mess can’t linger for for much longer.
“Obviously, a guy like Jon Jones has had a career where, if he wants something, we would do it,” White stated. “But you can’t just do a fun fight and not fight the interim heavyweight champion, the guy who is next. … Opportunities were given to Jon Jones. He was 23, he was the youngest champion of all time. Now, as he sits where he sits, it’s his obligation to give it to the younger guy, to give him that opportunity.”
Jones, 37, stays comparatively younger in comparison with the 42-year-old Miocic, who had been out of competitors since shedding the heavyweight crown to Francis Ngannou in March 2021.
At 31, Aspinall is likely one of the youngest huge males remotely near the highest of this division.
Aspinall, who on Friday weighed in because the backup fighter within the occasion that disaster struck both Jones or Miocic and compelled him out of Saturday’s predominant occasion, instructed The Submit throughout a Thursday studio interview that, as a lot because the Jones struggle pursuits him, he yearns for the shut of this fractured chapter within the division’s historical past Saturday evening.
“I’m just looking forward to this fight being done,” Aspinall stated. “Everything will be clear in just a couple of days’ time, and we’ll all move forward.”
