UFC CEO Dana White is adamant {that a} heavyweight title unification bout between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall will happen in 2025.
White spoke on the pending standing of the arguably largest combat within the firm’s heavyweight historical past on the UFC Tampa post-fight press convention Saturday.
There, White provided a one hundred pc assure that the extremely anticipated conflict will occur.
“Yeah, I’ll say 100 percent [guaranteed],” White stated when requested about Jones vs. Aspinall. “100 percent [it’s a priority]. I think it’s probably the biggest fight in heavyweight history, and it’s massive in the history of the company, too. It’s a big fight.”
White continued: “Jon Jones isn’t afraid to fight anybody, and that’s a fact. The only time anything weird ever happened was when his camp made the goofy decision to not fight Chael Sonnen [at UFC 151]. But Jon? He’s not the type to turn down fights.”
Aspinall, the interim UFC heavyweight champion, has surged by way of the division with dominance since 2020.
In 2024, he delivered a press release efficiency with a 60-second knockout of Curtis Blaydes to avenge his solely UFC loss.
Earlier than Jones stopped Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 in November, White anticipated that Aspinall would do battle with the victor — which was extensively anticipated to be Jones.
Jones has hinted at eager to combat UFC mild heavyweight champion Alex Pereira previously, however White insisted that Aspinall might be subsequent.
The champ has been adamant about not eager to combat Aspinall and has stated it might take an enormous payday to make him take into account it.
“He’s annoying to me and that’s my own personal — he annoys me,” Jones stated of Aspinall, who has taunted Jones for not squaring off with him, after UFC 309 “I get to you guys, you find it entertaining, but I find him annoying and I just don’t like him and at the end of the day, if I give him the opportunity to fight me, I want to be so compensated — I want to say it, I want that ‘f–k you’ money, honestly. That’s just what it is.”
“It’s weird,” White stated of Jones. “Let me tell you what’s weird about that. So usually, those guys say that s–t behind the scenes and not publicly. Jon says that s–t publicly but not behind the scenes. Jon is a very unique individual to deal with.”
Aspinall’s father and coach, Andy Aspinall, believes his son is a novel problem for Jones.
“Tom will be different from anyone Jon has fought before,” he stated. “A lot of people still don’t know what Tom excels at, and that unpredictability could be what works against Jones.”
The stage seems set for probably the most monumental showdowns in UFC heavyweight historical past.
