Tom Aspinall's dad 'can't think of a worse way' UFC could've announced son as champ

25-06-2025

Tom Aspinall's dad thinks his son deserved better from the UFC.
Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) was promoted to undisputed UFC heavyweight champion after Jon Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) retired and relinquished his belt. The announcement came from Dana White during the UFC on ABC 8 post-fight press conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Aspinall's dad, Andy Aspinall, revealed that he was informed of the news by Hunter Campbell after White's announcement, which left him baffled.
"I found out from Tom," Aspinall said in an interview with Uncrowned MMA. "At the same time, Tom was calling me to tell me that Hunter had told him. Hunter text me saying, 'Dana has just announced that Tom is the champ,' which was the same message he had sent Tom. I sent a message back to Hunter saying, 'I can't think of a worse way you could have done it.' I just think it's – I don't know if pathetic is the word, I just feel they didn't think about it.
"For me, the heavyweight championship of an organization is quite a big thing, and I don't think Tom deserved to find out at a press conference in the middle of the night. I can't think of a worse way to do it, maybe if they had woke us up to tell us it would have been worse. We just happened to be awake at the time. It's poor man management of Jones and Tom. I like the personnel at the UFC, but for me, they just don't do things right sometimes. Of course it's a massively successful business, but I think something like that deserved more thought after everything we've been through with this."
Almost two years have passed since Aspinall claimed the interim heavyweight title with a knockout of Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295. He even had to defend his interim belt when he stopped Curtis Blaydes in the first round at UFC 304 last July. It's been a long wait for Aspinall, who constantly heard assurances from the UFC that the title-unification bout with Jones would happen – until news of Jones' retirement emerged this past Saturday.