Tom Aspinall 'never speaking' about Jon Jones again, vows to shut down future questions

USA Today

5 hours ago

Tom Aspinall is done talking about Jon Jones.
Expect fewer headlines involving both Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall moving forward.
That's right. Although the two names have been almost inseparable from each other over the last two years, that's now going to change, at least according to Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC). The Englishman is fed up talking about Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC), and now that Jones retired, and the UFC promoted him from interim to undisputed champion, Aspinall sees no need to keep bringing up old business.
"The second I won the interim title, I think a lot of people looked at me different than a regular interim champion, in my opinion," Aspinall told Ariel Helwani. "For me, I was always a champion interim or not, in my opinion. I would've liked to have taken it from the other champion, that would've been nice, but I guess it's worked out for me.
"For me, it's very simple, people always want to ask me about Jon Jones, and this very interview right now will be the last time I speak about it. I'm done. I'm done with it. Anybody that asks me moving forward is getting shut down. I'm never speaking about it again."
Aspinall and Jones have been linked to a potential fight for almost two years. Jones won the vacant UFC heavyweiht title in March 2023. He was supposed to defend the belt against Stipe Miocic that same year in November, but Jones suffered an injury and the fight was pushed back an entire year. Oddly, an interim title was implemented, which Aspinall won and defended before Jones could return last November for his first title defense. A title unification was long overdue, and it was expected to go down in 2025. However, Jones retired last week in an abrupt announcement by UFC CEO Dana White.
Although Aspinall wanted the title unification fight badly, he is grateful there's finally a resolution to the heavyweight title picture, and he can now resume his career.
"I'm done with that with now, and I'm ready to move on," Aspinall said. "I've been talking about Jon Jones, I was happy to talk about Jon Jones to get the fight, and now the fight is not there, so I'm just like, 'Let's just move on.'"
For Aspinall it was never about Jones, and all about being the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion – a goal he's now achieved.
"I was relived that this is all over," Aspinall explained. "...I was never, ever, ever just chasing Jon Jones. There was a lot of talk from people online and stuff. There's a lot of comparisons to (Michael) Chandler chasing (Conor) McGregor. Chandler was chasing McGregor because he wanted a big fight, and he was chasing money, basically. I didn't care about a big fight or money.
"I cared about the heavyweight title. That's all I've ever been bothered about, recognition for being the best heavyweight walking around planet earth, so I'm just relieved that I can just fight again. A lot of people don't understand that. ... My job is to fight, and I haven't been able to do that for about a year for no good reason other than the politics of the UFC."